Wordpress Question on Search Console

Hello,

I apologize for the issue you are facing with Google considering 404 errors for draft and no-indexed posts/pages on your website. To resolve this, you can follow these steps:

1. Check WordPress Global Settings:

   • Ensure that the noindex setting is correctly configured in Rank Math SEO settings for Posts/Pages/Products/CPTs. You can do this by navigating to WordPress Dashboard → Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta → Posts/Pages/Products/CPTs.

2. Ensure Search Engine Visibility is Unchecked:

   • Make sure that the “Discourage Search engines…” option is not enabled in WordPress. You can find this setting at WordPress Dashboard → Settings → Reading. If this option is checked, it may prevent Google from indexing your site.

3. Update Robots.txt Rules:

   • Check your website’s robots.txt file for any Disallow tags that might be blocking Google from crawling your pages. You can edit the robots.txt file in Rank Math at WordPress Dashboard → Rank Math SEO → General Settings → Edit Robots.txt.

If after following these steps the issue persists, you can reach out to our dedicated support team here for further assistance. They are available 24/7 to help you with any queries or concerns.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention, and we appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this issue for you.

Kind regards,

Sources:
How to Find Out Where 404 Errors Are Coming From » Rank Math
Fix Excluded by NoIndex Tag – Google Search Console Status » Rank Math
How to Fix Submitted URL Marked ‘NoIndex’ Error » Rank Math
Why Google Hasn’t Indexed Your Post, Page, and/or Website? » Rank Math
How to Fix “Crawled – Currently Not Indexed” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Rank Math support.

Please note that if you have marked a post as a draft that was previously published and indexed in the SERPs, Google will report a 404 error for that URL. Since the URL was previously indexed, Google will recrawl it and get a 404 error as it is no longer published on the site. If that’s the case, then it is completely normal to see 404 errors. You can redirect the old URLs to the related posts to avoid 404 errors in your GSC account.

Hope that helps and please do not hesitate to let us know if you need our assistance with anything else.