Hello,
Thank you for contacting Rank Math support, and sorry for any inconvenience that might have been caused due to that.
Can you please follow these steps?
1. Flush the Sitemap cache by following this video screencast:
https://i.rankmath.com/pipRDp
2. Exclude the Sitemap files of the Rank Math plugin in your caching plugin. The cache could be via a plugin or from the server. For plugins or Cloudflare, please follow this article:
https://rankmath.com/kb/exclude-sitemaps-from-caching/
If that doesn’t help, kindly share the affected URL that isn’t updating on your sitemap.
Looking forward to helping you on this one.
Hello,
You should inspect https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-packages/ in the Search Console.
Also, as you have added a custom canonical URL, the URL will not be added to the sitemap.
Hope this helps.
Thank you.
I have uploaded the JSON file from the Google Cloud Platform to Instant Indexing. For further clarification, I would like to know that in the Instant Indexing Console to ‘Google: Publish/update URL’ which URL should I input https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tours-packages/ or the shortened current URL https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-packages/ ??
Also, which URL will show up in the sitemap: https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tours-packages/ or the shortened current URL https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-packages/ ??
Kindly respond to the previous query as well as this one.
Hello,
You should enter the canonical URL of the page, which in this case is https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tours-packages/
This is the same URL that will also be shown in the sitemaps.
Hope that helps.
Thank you.
OK, Thank you. In the Instant Indexing Google: Publish/Update URL, which URL should I input https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tours-packages/ or the shortened current URL https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-packages/ ??
Hello,
As mentioned by my colleague, you should submit the canonical URL to the Instant Indexing: https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tours-packages/
Hope this helps. Let us know if you need any other assistance.
The URLs that have been changed/shortened have an automatic 301 redirect created so they do not show up on the Rank Math sitemap. Rank Math’s sitemaps automatically remove redirected pages. You can check the sitemap of the website and understand. Hence, I am unable to understand what you have stated. Therefore, the changed/shortened URLs should be input into the instant indexing plugin. Right or wrong?
Hello,
The short URLs still have the canonical URL set as the URLs you used before. Can you please confirm if you have manually added the canonical URL in the Advanced tab of the meta box?
If yes, please remove the URL from there as if the canonical is not a self-referencing URL, the new URLs will not get included in the sitemap or indexed by the search engines.
Looking forward to helping you.
Hello,
Question 1: Is this OK? I have NOT manually added the canonical URL in the Advanced tab of the meta box. It is still showing the old URL as canonical in the Advanced tab of the meta box.
To make it clearer to you and for you to advise me on what to do to correct the issues –
A total of 6 URLs have been shortened:
1). From https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tour-booking/ to https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-booking/
2). From https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tours-packages/ to https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-packages/
3). From https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tour-customized/ to https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/customized-tour/
4). From https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tour-package-three/ to https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-package-three/
5). From https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tour-package-two/ to https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-package-two/
6). From https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tour-package-one/ to https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-package-one/
Question 2: So should I input old URLs or the new URLs in the Instant Indexing?
Question 3: In the URL inspection on Google Search Console which URL should I search for and request for Indexing, the old URLs or the new URLs?
Kindly check the sitemap from your end to see if there are any issues with it.
Thank you and await your kind response.
Hello,
Question 1: Is this OK? I have NOT manually added the canonical URL in the Advanced tab of the meta box. It is still showing the old URL as canonical in the Advanced tab of the meta box.
For each of the 6 URLs you shared please edit the canonicals and set them to the new URLs. You can follow this guide for how: https://rankmath.com/kb/how-to-change-canonical-url/. After saving the new canonicals, please clear your server cache.
Question 2: So should I input old URLs or the new URLs in the Instant Indexing?
Question 3: In the URL inspection on Google Search Console which URL should I search for and request for Indexing, the old URLs or the new URLs?
Once you have set the correct canonicals, you can go ahead and request indexing using one the methods. I would recommend using the URL inspection tool as it is more reliable than instant indexing. However, if you do not have a lot of time, instant indexing is easier and more convenient.
Hope that helps. Please let us know if you have questions.
Thank you so much for all the proper instructions, Nigel. It saved me a lot of time as I could manage to do all that was required to get the pages indexed by GSC. Kudos to your expertise!
Hello,
We are glad we could address your concerns. If you have any other questions in the future, know that we are here to help you.
If you don’t mind me asking, could you please leave us a review (if you haven’t already) on https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/seo-by-rank-math/reviews/#new-post about your overall experience with Rank Math? We appreciate your time and patience.
If you do have another question in the future, please feel free to create a new forum topic, and it will be our pleasure to assist you again.
Thank you.
