Hello,
We apologize for the issue you are facing with Google crawling and indexing the wrong attachment URLs. It seems that even though you have enabled the redirect attachment option, some URLs are still being indexed incorrectly.
Here are a few points to consider:
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Redirect Attachment Option: Ensure that the redirect attachment option is properly configured in Rank Math. You can refer to this article for guidance on how to set it up: How to Redirect Attachments to the Media URL with Rank Math.
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Sitemap Settings: Since you mentioned that you have disabled attachments in the sitemap, double-check your settings in Rank Math to confirm that they are correctly applied. You can find more information on fixing sitemap issues here: Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes.
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Plugin Conflicts: The ThumbPress plugin may be causing conflicts with how attachments are handled. Consider temporarily disabling it to see if that resolves the issue.
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Feed URLs: Regarding the feed URLs being indexed, it’s common for Google to crawl feed URLs as they are part of the site’s structure. If you do not want these indexed, you can add them to your robots.txt file to disallow crawling or use the noindex tag if applicable.
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Monitoring Indexing: Keep an eye on your Google Search Console for any updates or changes in indexing behavior after making adjustments.
If these suggestions do not resolve your issue, please reply to this ticket, and a human agent from the Rank Math Support team will assist you further. Thank you for raising this concern, and we hope to help you resolve it soon!
Sources:
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math
How to Redirect Attachments to the Media URL with Rank Math » Rank Math
Hello,
Thank you for contacting Rank Math and bringing your concern to our attention.
Unfortunately, our plugin doesn’t support redirecting URLs of the wp-content path.
In this case, you will have to use .htaccess file for such redirections. Here is a guide that can help: https://karenattfield.com/redirect-pdf-wordpress/
Here’s how you can edit the .htaccess file using Rank Math:
https://rankmath.com/kb/edit-htaccess/
Please take a backup before editing your .htaccess file.
Googlebot should ideally not crawl those wp-content paths. You can set the following rules in your robots.txt to restrict web crawlers from crawling the wp-content and */feed/ directories.
User-Agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: */feed/
Disallow: /?attachment_id=*
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
Sitemap: https://YOURDOMAIN.COM/sitemap_index.xml
Replace YOURDOMAIN with your actual domain.
Hope that helps.
Thanks.
1.Also i didnt understand the article https://karenattfield.com/redirect-pdf-wordpress/ which you send me.
Can you plz tell the exact code that i have to add.
2.Also alternatively cant i just disallow wp-content/upload in robot.txt or is it a bad idea for seo?
3. Repeating the above thread question again what is options -indexes
and should i use it?
4. I added the Disallow: /?attachment_id=* in robot.txt but i am confused will it be bad for my seo?
Hello,
1. Rank Math cannot redirect /wp-content/ URLs, you’d have to use another Redirection plugin or use an .htaccess rule. Here’s an example:
#Begin 301 Redirects
Redirect 301 /wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ss_63a55faff0bce97d71dc1b6b2066ad8365b38a6c.1920×1080.webp https://www.example.com/new-sub-page/new-sub-sub-page/
#End 301 Redirects
2. When you add rules in your robtst.txt file to disable wp-content folder, you will be restricting Google from indexing any files uploaded to the wp-content folder. This will usually include all your media images as well as the uploaded files of most plugins. If this is indeed what you want to achieve, then sure, go ahead. There is no other SEO impart apart from Google removing the content of your wp-content folder from its index.
3. If you want to remove specific images from Google, you can use the robots.txt file to exclude them. If you want to remove all your image content as well as other contents of the wp-content folder, then you can disable the entire folder.
4. No, this would not affect your SEO, but those pages would no longer appear on search results pages.
We hope this helps clarify the issue. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.
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.
