Google Index Issue

#995186
  • Resolved Sara
    Rank Math free

    Hello,

    I am having an issue with Google Indexing my website. They are stating they can’t locate the sitemap, which has a robot.txt with no index. I do not know how to correct this, and it is significantly preventing my business from kicking off as you can’t locate me in Google, but you can in Bing. And if you google my website, a scammer website ranks [domain inserted in Sensitive Data section] on whether it is a scam or not. I am struggling to fix this and need help.

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  • Hello,

    We apologize for the issue you are facing with Google indexing your website. It sounds like there are a couple of things to address regarding your robots.txt file and sitemap.

    1. Check Your robots.txt File

    First, you need to ensure that your robots.txt file is not blocking Google from crawling your site. You can check your robots.txt file by visiting yourdomain.com/robots.txt. Look for any Disallow directives that might be preventing Googlebot from accessing your site.

    If you find any directives that are blocking access, you will need to remove or modify them. Here’s how you can edit your robots.txt file using Rank Math:

    • Go to your WordPress Dashboard.
    • Navigate to Rank Math SEO > General Settings > Edit Robots.txt.

    Edit robots.txt

    2. Ensure Your Sitemap is Accessible

    Make sure that your sitemap is correctly generated and accessible. You can usually find your sitemap at yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml. If it’s not accessible, you may need to regenerate it using Rank Math:

    • Go to Rank Math SEO > Sitemap Settings in your WordPress dashboard and ensure everything is set up correctly.

    3. Request Indexing in Google Search Console

    Once you have made the necessary changes, you can request Google to recrawl your site:

    • Go to Google Search Console.
    • Use the URL Inspection tool to check your homepage or sitemap URL.
    • Click on the Request Indexing button.

    4. Monitor for Errors

    Keep an eye on Google Search Console for any errors or messages regarding indexing issues. If you see messages like "Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt" or "Page indexed without content," you can refer to our guides on how to fix these issues:

    If you continue to experience issues, please reply to this ticket with your website URL so that a human agent from our support team can assist you further.

    Thank you for raising this concern, and we hope this helps you get your website indexed properly!

    Sources:
    Why Did My Website Disappear From Google Search? » Rank Math
    How to Fix Indexing Issues in Google Search Console » Rank Math
    How to Fix ‘Page Indexed Without Content’ Issue in Google Search Console » Rank Math

    Sara
    Rank Math free

    I see a site map but it is not showing up in the robot txt.

    To clarify, Google does not show a connection to my sitemap. When I dive deeper, the sitemap provides a header of a blocked robot txt, but when I inspect the sitemap, no such thing is there. I have reached out to my web host, and they stated it’s a rank math seo issue.

    My website shows up in Bing and other areas but won’t for Google.

    Hello,

    Your sitemap is already included in your robots.txt.

    It seems that you are inspecting your sitemap URL, that’s why you are getting the noindex in header error.

    Please note that RankMath sets the “noindex” tag on your sitemaps by default. It’s done this way because a sitemap is only meant to guide search engines through your site, not to rank in search results.

    The reason you’re seeing it set to “noindex” is to prevent it from appearing in search results, which is the desired behavior.

    You should follow this guide to properly submit your sitemap:
    https://rankmath.com/kb/submit-sitemap-to-google/

    Regarding your indexing issues, you should check your Google Search Console > Indexing > Pages section to determine any issues reported on your URLs that may have prevented your site from being indexed:
    https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7440203?hl=en

    Looking forward to helping you.

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