Is there a way to keep sitemap.xml files from getting indexed?
-
Wow, I should know the answer to this question.
Sitemap.xml files have to be accessible to the bots for indexing they can't be disallowed in robots.txt and can't block the folder at the server level.
So how can you allow the bots to crawl these xml pages but have them not show up in google's index when doing a site: command search, or is that even possible? Hmmm
-
ahhh no index in .htaccess file. brilliant - thanks!
-
Usually you would need to add noindex to the meta robots tag in the of your web page. Because your sitemap is an XML file and not HTML you will need to do things differently.
You can add the code below to your .htaccess file, which you can find in the ROOT folder of your server. Open the file in a plain text editor and insert the following:
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noindex"
This will stop search engines indexing your sitemap without restricting them from crawling it.
Note: Replace 'sitemap.xml' with your file name - if different.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Best Practice Approaches to Canonicals vs. Indexing in Google Sitemap vs. No Follow Tags
Hi There, I am working on the following website: https://wave.com.au/ I have become aware that there are different pages that are competing for the same keywords. For example, I just started to update a core, category page - Anaesthetics (https://wave.com.au/job-specialties/anaesthetics/) to focus mainly around the keywords ‘Anaesthetist Jobs’. But I have recognized that there are ongoing landing pages that contain pretty similar content: https://wave.com.au/anaesthetists/ https://wave.com.au/asa/ We want to direct organic traffic to our core pages e.g. (https://wave.com.au/job-specialties/anaesthetics/). This then leads me to have to deal with the duplicate pages with either a canonical link (content manageable) or maybe alternatively adding a no-follow tag or updating the robots.txt. Our resident developer also suggested that it might be good to use Google Index in the sitemap to tell Google that these are of less value? What is the best approach? Should I add a canonical link to the landing pages pointing it to the category page? Or alternatively, should I use the Google Index? Or even another approach? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Wavelength_International0 -
Sitemap Query
I've decided to write my own sitemap because frankly, the automated ones pull all kinds of out of I don't know where. So to get around that, manual it is. But I have some products appear in various categories, should I still list every product in each category in the sitemap, regardless of some being duplicates, or should I choose the most relevant category and list them there? I do have a canonical URL extension which should resolve any duplicate content I have.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | moon-boots0 -
Will disallowing URL's in the robots.txt file stop those URL's being indexed by Google
I found a lot of duplicate title tags showing in Google Webmaster Tools. When I visited the URL's that these duplicates belonged to, I found that they were just images from a gallery that we didn't particularly want Google to index. There is no benefit to the end user in these image pages being indexed in Google. Our developer has told us that these urls are created by a module and are not "real" pages in the CMS. They would like to add the following to our robots.txt file Disallow: /catalog/product/gallery/ QUESTION: If the these pages are already indexed by Google, will this adjustment to the robots.txt file help to remove the pages from the index? We don't want these pages to be found.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | andyheath0 -
No Index Question
Hello, We are attempting to have the following page removed from Google search results: view-source:http://www.mndaily.com/1998/04/08/missing-student-has-disappeared A noindex tag was added but we aren't sure if it was done correctly. I'm wondering if there are any experts here that might be able to confirm that this was added correctly and will result in the removal of the page from search results. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jasonMPLS0 -
Changing the XML Sitemap address
For technical reason we are having to change our XML sitemap URL's from domain.com/sitemap.xml to domain.com/sitemaps/sitemap.xml - What checklist do I need to do to make sure this transition goes smoothly and is there any problems that I might come across?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohnW-UK0 -
Which index page should I canonical to?
Hello! I'm doing a routine clean up of my code and had a question about the canonical tag. On the index page, I have the following: I have never put any thought into which index path is the best to use. http://www.example.com http://www.example.com/ http://www.example.com/index.php Could someone shed some light on this for me? Does it make a difference? Thanks! Ryan
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ryan_Phillips1 -
Indexing specified entry pages
Hi,We are currently working on location based info.Basically, when someone searches from Florida they will get specific Florida results and when they search from California they will specific California results.How does this location based info affect crawling and indexing?Lets say we have location info for googlebot, sometimes they crawl from a New York ip address, sometimes they do it from Texas and sometimes from California. In this case google will index 3 different pages with 3 different prices and a bit different text, and I'm afraid they might see these as some kind of cloaking or suspicious movement because we serve different versions of the page. What's the best way to handle this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SEODinosaur0 -
Mobile Sitemap
Do I need to submit a sitemap for a mobile site? What are the benefits/disadvantages? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AlightAnalytics0