Urgent: Critical Bug in Rank Math Sitemap Noindex Issue - Support

caas india
2 weeks, 6 days ago

Rank Math free

Dear Rank Math Support Team,

I am writing to report a persistent and critical issue in Rank Math that has been affecting my website’s indexing and SEO. For several days, the sitemaps generated by Rank Math are sending X-Robots-Tag: noindex headers for post URLs, causing major indexing problems.

Specifically:

1. Posts included in Rank Math-generated sitemaps are showing indexing errors in Google Search Console. This puts my website’s search visibility at risk.
2. The issue occurs only with Rank Math-generated sitemaps. Other sitemap submissions do not show this problem.
3. I have followed all recommended troubleshooting steps, including clearing server-side cache, reviewing .htaccess rules, and checking for conflicting plugins, but the issue persists.

It is concerning that some suggested responses involve temporary “workarounds” instead of directly fixing the underlying bug in the plugin. Rank Math should correct this bug in its plugin, ensuring proper sitemap headers for all users.

As a free user, I expect that critical issues like this are taken seriously. The ongoing nature of this bug and the absence of a definitive fix is negatively impacting my website’s SEO performance.

I request that your team:

* Acknowledge this bug and provide a timeline for a proper fix.
* Ensure that free users are supported and not ignored in critical plugin issues.
* Provide a permanent solution rather than recommending temporary workarounds.

Please treat this matter as urgent. Every day this issue remains unresolved risks further indexing and ranking losses.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

RankBot
2 weeks, 6 days ago
Hello,

We apologize for the critical issue you are facing with the Rank Math sitemap and the X-Robots-Tag: noindex headers. Thank you for bringing this to our attention and for detailing the steps you’ve already taken to troubleshoot the problem.

This issue can indeed be concerning, especially when it affects your website’s indexing and SEO performance. Here are a few things you can check or try:
1. Check Post Settings: Ensure that the posts in question are set to index in the Rank Math settings. You can do this by navigating to Rank Math SEO → Advanced tab in the post editing screen and confirming that they are not set to noindex.
2. Flush Permalinks: Sometimes, flushing permalinks can resolve issues with sitemap generation. You can do this by going to Settings → Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard and simply clicking Save Changes.
3. Exclude Sitemap from Caching: If you have caching plugins or server-side caching, ensure that your sitemap is excluded from being cached. You can find more information on how to do this in our tutorial on excluding sitemaps from caching.
4. Check for Plugin Conflicts: Since you’ve already checked for conflicting plugins, it might be worth temporarily disabling all other plugins except Rank Math to see if the issue persists.
If these steps do not resolve the issue, we recommend replying to your ticket so that a human agent from our support team can take over and provide further assistance. They will be able to investigate this matter more thoroughly and provide you with a timeline for a fix.

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to resolve this issue. Your feedback is valuable, and we take all concerns seriously, especially those affecting our users’ SEO performance.

Thank you for your understanding, and we hope to resolve this matter swiftly for you.

Sources:
Why the Sitemap_Index.xml is Throwing a 404 Error » Rank Math
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math

This is an automated reply from Rank Math Support Bot. Your ticket has been assigned to a human agent and we will get back to you shortly.
caas india
2 weeks, 6 days ago

Rank Math free

Sitemap Noindex Issue – Steps Already Tried, Needs Urgent Bug Fix

Dear Rank Math Team,

Thank you for your reply. However, all the suggested steps — checking post settings, flushing permalinks, excluding sitemaps from caching, and testing for plugin conflicts — have already been completed on my end. The issue still persists.

From the multiple reports by other users as well, it is now clear that this problem originates from the Rank Math plugin itself. This is not an isolated case, and temporary workarounds are not a long-term solution.

Since this directly impacts indexing and ranking, the damage to SEO can be significant if not addressed quickly. We have trusted and used Rank Math for several years, and we wish to continue using it. But if this issue continues unresolved, and rankings/indexing losses become unavoidable, then switching to another SEO plugin will remain the only option.

We strongly urge you to treat this as a priority bug in Rank Math and release a proper fix as soon as possible. Please provide an update on whether your development team is already working on a solution and what the expected timeline is.

Looking forward to your prompt action.

Ike
2 weeks, 6 days ago

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Rank Math and bringing your concern to our attention.

That URL of the sitemap of the website should return a noindex status code because you wouldn’t want to index the sitemaps from your website, but rather only the pages that are inside the sitemap.

That directive on the sitemap prevents it from appearing on SERPs but it doesn’t prevent Google from crawling the pages on it and indexing them.

If you test any sitemap, even from big websites you’ll see that all of them use this directive to be sure it’s not getting included on SERPs.

Even our own sitemap includes that:

To submit the sitemap to the correct place on GSC you should follow the steps in this tutorial: https://rankmath.com/kb/submit-sitemap-to-google/

Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any other questions.

caas india
2 weeks, 5 days ago

Rank Math free

Hello Rank Math Team,

Thank you for your response. I understand that sitemaps themselves are not meant to be indexed and usually carry a “noindex” directive.

However, I would like to highlight two important concerns:

Google Search Console is showing sitemap URLs with a “noindex” error.

When inspecting sitemap URLs in GSC, the message appears as:
“URL is not on Google – Indexing allowed? No – Blocked by ‘noindex’”

This is shown as an error, not just an informational note. For site owners, it creates confusion and makes it difficult to trust sitemap reporting.

Google’s own documentation clearly states that sitemaps themselves are not indexed — only the listed URLs inside them are considered for crawling and indexing.

Reference: Google Search Central – Learn about sitemaps

Quote: “A sitemap doesn’t guarantee that all the items listed in it will be crawled and indexed, and the sitemap itself is not indexed; only the URLs listed in it are considered.”

This means: While it is correct that sitemaps are not meant for indexing, the problem is not the noindex concept itself, but the fact that Google Search Console is flagging it as an error when Rank Math adds the X-Robots-Tag: noindex header.

Several users have already reported this issue, which strongly suggests it is linked to the way Rank Math handles sitemap headers.

As a long-time Rank Math user, I kindly request that your team investigate this as a plugin bug and release an official fix, rather than suggesting temporary workarounds.

We value Rank Math and want to continue using it, but if indexing and rankings are at risk, switching plugins will be the only option left.

Please confirm if your team is planning a permanent fix for this issue.

Ike
2 weeks, 5 days ago

Hello,

Can you please confirm if you’re inspecting your sitemap URL in your Google Search Console and getting this error? If so, then it is normal and you don’t have to worry. You’ll get the error if you inspect your sitemaps because, by default, sitemaps are set to noindex as they are meant to be crawled and not to be displayed on search results pages.

You should only submit your sitemap to the sitemap section of your GSC account and shouldn’t use the URL inspection tool for the sitemap URLs.
https://rankmath.com/kb/submit-sitemap-to-google/

We understand your concern about the sitemap being set as ‘noindex’, but we assure you that this is how it should be.

Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any other questions.

Thank you.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

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