Critical Error: “Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag” with Rank Math Active

#1092596
  • Resolved Man

    2 months ago

    Rank Math free

    Dear Rank Math Support Team,

    I’m writing to report a persistent issue I’ve encountered on my website, resulting in pages being excluded from indexing. Google Search Console shows the error: “Page cannot be indexed: Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag.”

    After extensive troubleshooting over several days, I’ve narrowed down the cause: this problem only occurs when the Rank Math plugin is activated on my site. When Rank Math is deactivated, the pages are correctly indexed.

    I have spent a considerable amount of time troubleshooting this, and I’ve followed all the relevant guides and documentation on your website to fix the ‘noindex’ issue. However, the problem persists.

    This is a critical issue impacting my site’s SEO and visibility. Could you please investigate this matter and provide a solution as soon as possible? I’m happy to provide any additional information or access you may need to diagnose the problem.

    Thank you for your time and assistance.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • RankBot

    2 months ago

    Hello,

    We apologize for the issue you are facing with the "Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag" error on your website. Thank you for providing detailed information about the problem and your troubleshooting efforts.

    To address this issue, please follow these steps to ensure that the ‘noindex’ tag is not applied unintentionally:

    1. Check Individual Pages: Navigate to the affected pages in your WordPress dashboard and ensure that the ‘noindex’ option is not enabled in the Rank Math settings for those specific pages. You can find this under the Rank Math meta box when editing a page or post.

    2. Search Engine Visibility Settings: Go to Settings → Reading in your WordPress dashboard. Ensure that the checkbox labeled Discourage search engines from indexing this site is unchecked. If it is checked, uncheck it and save changes.
      Leave Search engine visibility unchecked

    3. Review Plugins and Themes: Sometimes, other plugins or themes may also add ‘noindex’ tags. Review any active plugins or your theme settings that might be affecting indexing.

    4. Check Robots.txt File: Ensure that your robots.txt file is not blocking Google from crawling your pages. You can check this by navigating to Rank Math SEO → General Settings → Robots.txt.

    5. Use Google Search Console: In Google Search Console, navigate to the Pages section and click on Not indexed to see which pages are affected. Click on the “Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag” status to identify all affected pages.
      Excluded by NoIndex tag - Google Search Console status

    If you have followed these steps and the issue persists, we recommend replying to this ticket with your website URL so that a human agent from our support team can investigate further and provide a tailored solution.

    Thank you for your patience, and we look forward to resolving this issue for you soon!

    Sources:
    How to Fix Indexing Issues in Google Search Console » Rank Math
    Fix Excluded by NoIndex Tag – Google Search Console Status » Rank Math
    Fix Excluded by NoIndex Tag – Google Search Console Status » Rank Math

    Reinelle

    2 months ago

    Hello,

    Please share the affected URLs from your Google Search Console so we can check and verify them.

    If you want to share images, you can upload screenshots using this tool and add the link here.

    Looking forward to helping you.

    RankBot

    1 month ago

    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.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The ticket ‘Critical Error: “Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag” with Rank Math Active’ is closed to new replies.