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Task Answers
How to Check if Your Sitemap Includes Noindex URLs

How to Check if Your Sitemap Includes Noindex URLs

Author

Date Published

October 24, 2025

Table of contents

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Use tools like Screaming Frog or a custom script to crawl your sitemap and identify pages marked with a noindex tag. Ensuring your sitemap only includes indexable pages improves crawl efficiency and SEO rankings.

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Key Takaways

Noindex URLs in sitemaps send mixed signals to search engines, potentially hurting SEO.
Only indexable, valuable pages should be included in your XML sitemap.
Tools like Screaming Frog and Sitebulb can detect noindex tags within sitemap URLs.
You can automate checks using Google Search Console or Python scripts.
Cleaning your sitemap increases crawl budget efficiency and improves indexation.
Regular auditing prevents SEO performance issues caused by incorrect sitemap configurations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I remove noindex URLs from my sitemap?

At least quarterly or after major site structure changes to ensure your sitemap remains optimized and accurate.

How often should I audit my sitemap for noindex URLs?

At least quarterly or after major site structure changes to ensure your sitemap remains optimized and accurate.

Can Google penalize me for having noindex URLs in my sitemap?

No penalties, but it can confuse crawlers and lower your site's search performance due to inefficiencies.

What tools can help automate this process?

Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, Google Search Console, and Python scripts using BeautifulSoup or requests libraries.

Does Yoast or Rank Math include noindex pages in sitemap by default?

No, both plugins typically exclude noindex pages automatically, but you should still verify manually.

Step by Step Plan

01

Export Your Sitemap

Download or access your sitemap.xml file either through yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml or from your CMS or SEO plugin settings.

02

Crawl Sitemap with SEO Tool

Use SEO tools like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb to crawl the sitemap and report on meta robots tags for each URL.

03

Filter Noindex URLs

Sort or filter the crawled data to find which URLs are marked with <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> or X-Robots-Tag headers.

04

Filter Noindex URLs

In GSC, use the ‘Pages’ report under Indexing to identify noindex URLs still submitted in your sitemap.

05

Update and Resubmit Sitemap

Remove noindex URLs from your sitemap via your CMS or manually, then resubmit the cleaned XML sitemap to Google Search Console.

Comparison Table

Healthy Sitemap
Problematic Sitemap
Includes only indexable pages
Lists noindex or blocked pages
Improves crawl budget efficiency
Wastes crawl budget
Boosts indexation rate
Delays or prevents indexing
Aligns with Google's guidelines
Creates conflicting signals
No conflicting meta directives
May lower SEO performance

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Sources

Google Search Central: Sitemaps Report
Screaming Frog: Removing Noindex URLs from Your Sitemap
Google Developers: Sitemap Best Practices

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