Hello,
Thank you for contacting Rank Math support, and sorry for any inconvenience that might have been caused due to that.
Since the pages have already been removed as the backup is no longer existing, Google should be removing them in the next crawl of your website.
Please check if your sitemap is not cached by any of your caching services so Google can see the latest and updated content of your website. You may refer to this guide here:
https://rankmath.com/kb/exclude-sitemaps-from-caching/
Looking forward to helping you.
Hi!
Thank you for your answer!
The rules regarding cashing the sitemap do exist.
Regarding the website pages – I deleted the backup from the Cpanel and I can’t find any trace of it. Beyond that, I don’t know what else I can do.
In the meantime I am waiting for a change in GSC. It’s been two months, is this normal?
Thanks!
Hello,
Can you please share some of the affected URL that is currently indexed by Google so we can take a closer look at them?
Looking forward to helping you.
Hello,
I have updated the sensitive data as requested. Can you please check further?
Thank you.
Hello,
Thank you for sharing those URLs,
I checked the first one and I can confirm that it’s currently not indexed by the search engine.
As for the second URL, it was indexed and it is also currently redirected to a product page. Can you please confirm that?
I checked everything from your website links and your sitemap but I wasn’t able to locate the affected URLs. You may need to check this again with your hosting provider as to why these URLs are being indexed.
Also, for now, you can add these URLs to your robots.txt file to disallow it from getting indexed.
Looking forward to helping you on this one.
Hi
Thank you for your answer
“I checked the first one and I can confirm that it’s currently not indexed by the search engine”.
“As for the second URL, it was indexed and it is also currently redirected to a product page. Can you please confirm that?”
I checked and indeed it is exactly so.
Regarding the command in robots.txt, what should I add? I have not written this command before, and I don’t want to make a mistake.
Thanks
Hello,
You can add a disallow rule Disallow: /backup/ to your robots.txt file to prevent the crawling of backup URLs. You can add the rule just below the Disallow: /wp-admin/ rule.
Hope that helps. Please let us know if you have questions.
Hello,
I have updated the sensitive data as requested. Can you please check further?
Thank you.
Hi
I tried to find the robot.txt file but I don’t have such a file in the Cpanel.
I will note that wp-admin is not currently indexed.
I have included the commands I entered through robots.txt in the Rank Math plugin.
Hello,
I checked your robots.txt and it has been updated to block the /backup/ folder from crawling. The /backup/ folder will eventually be removed from index.
I will note that wp-admin is not currently indexed.
Please note that the /wp-admin/ path should not be indexed because it is not visible to the public.
Hope that helps. Please let us know if you have questions.
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.
