Hello,
I’m sorry to hear about the issue you are facing with setting the category to Index but Google showing it as set to NoIndex. This discrepancy can sometimes occur due to various reasons, including conflicting settings or caching issues.
To resolve this, please follow these steps:
-
Check Rank Math Settings: Ensure that the category is set to Index in Rank Math’s Titles & Meta settings. You can navigate to WP Dashboard → Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta and confirm the settings for the specific category.
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Clear Cache: Clear any caching plugins or server-side caches that might be affecting the visibility of the category.
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Inspect Page Source: Verify the NoIndex tag in the source code of the category page. If it’s present, it might be overriding the settings. You can manually remove it from the source code.
If after following these steps the issue persists, please reply to this ticket, and a human agent from our support team will assist you further.
Thank you for bringing this concern to our attention. We are here to help you resolve this issue.
Best regards.
Sources:
Using Rank Math’s ‘Quick Actions’ Admin Menu Item
Fix Excluded by NoIndex Tag – Google Search Console Status » Rank Math
How to Fix the Submitted URL Seems to Be a “Soft 404” Error » Rank Math
How to NoIndex All Posts in a Category » Rank Math
Advanced Tab in Rank Math SEO’s Meta Box
I have just discovered if I publish a Category with no posts that RankMath sets it to noindex, I have added a post and index status is now correct
Hello,
Thank you for contacting Rank Math support.
This is because you have enabled the “Noindex Empty Category and Tag Archives” option in Rank Math > Title & Meta > Global Meta. This option will set any empty category or tag as noindex to avoid indexation of thin content pages and dilution of page rank. When you add a post to the tag or category, it’ll be set to index
. If you do not want this functionality, you can disable it.
We hope this helps clarify the issue. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.
Thanks that has answered my query fully!
Hello,
Glad that helped.
If you have any other concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us anytime to assist you further.
Looking forward to helping you.
Thank you.
Hello,
Since we did not hear back from you for 15 days, we are assuming that you found the solution. We are closing this support ticket.
If you still need assistance or any other help, please feel free to open a new support ticket, and we will be more than happy to assist.
Thank you.