How to Fix New Coverage Issue Detected for Site

I’d received an email notification by the Google Search Console Team, that I had a “new coverage issue detected” on my site. I followed the link ‘Fix Coverage issues’ at the bottom of the email.

Google Search Console - New Coverage Issue Detected
Google Search Console – New Coverage Issue Detected

This took me to my site in Google’s Search Console, where it displayed the following error… ‘Submitted URL Marked ‘noindex’’

Google Search Console – Submitted URL marked ‘noindex’ – Learn More
Video – How to Fix Google Search Console – Submitted URL marked ‘noindex’

Google Search Console – Submitted URL Marked noindex?

So, what is a ‘Submitted URL Marked noindex’ error?

Google Search Console – Submitted URL Marked ‘noindex’

It’s…

  • A web page.
  • That’s marked ‘noindex’.
  • That Google thinks should be indexed, as it’s a ‘Submitted URL’.

You can see an example of the error, by following the link at the bottom of the page in Google Search Console. In my case, Google indicated that it was a copy of my sitemap (in HTML format).

Notes:

  • This is a copy of my sitemap, (in the HTML format).
  • It’s also, not the expected .xml format that sitemaps often use.
Google Search Console – Submitted URL Marked ‘noindex’ (Example)

Google’s search console expects a submitted URL to be searchable. It’s not. Therefore it marks the webpage with an Submitted URL Marked ‘noindex’ error.


How to fix – Submitted URL Marked noindex

The simple answer is remove the ‘noindex’ meta tag from the code, but it’s probably been put there for a reason? So you need to check all the possible solutions:

  • Is the URL needed. Was it published in error?
    • Should you delete the URL, or mark it as draft?
  • Why is the URL marked ‘noindex’?
    • Remove the ‘noindex’ meta tag from the code?
  • Was the file generated (by a process or plugin)?
    • Investigate:
      • What is the file for?
      • Why is it there?
        • Check the plugin settings…
        • Was the submitted file in the wrong format?

Solved – Here is What I Did to Fix my Issue…

In my case, the URL was an HTML copy of my sitemap (my sitemap is generated by a WordPress plugin).

Any of the solutions below may give a clue to the Submitted URL marked ‘noindex’ error in Google Search console. Here are two possible solutions:

If using the WordPress plugin:

Using Google XML Sitemaps:

  1. I went to the plugin in WordPress that produced my sitemap ‘Google XML Sitemaps’ and clicked on the settings link (see the image below).
WordPress Plugin – Google XML Sitemaps – Settings
  1. Under the section ‘Basic Options’ I found that there was an option to ‘Include sitemap in HTML format’.
WordPress Plugin Google XML Sitemaps – Settings – Basic Options
  1. I unchecked this box (this was generating a copy of my sitemap, in the HTML format).
  2. Next, I went to the top of the Google XML Sitemaps settings under the heading ‘Result of the last ping’ and resubmitted my sitemap and sub-sitemaps (see the image below). This also notified the search engines that they had been updated.
Google XML Sitemaps – Notify Search Engines About your Main Sitemap and all Sub-Sitemaps Now
  1. Now go back to Google Search Console and Validate the Fix.
Google Search Console – Submitted URL marked ‘noindex’ – Validate Fix
  1. Google Search Console will now check that it has been fixed…
Google Search Console – Submitted URL Marked ‘noindex’ Validation Started (See Details)

It might take a few days, to several weeks for Google’s Search Console to check and validate the error, but the ‘Submitted URL Marked ‘noindex’ error should eventually disappear.

Google Search Console – Validation Passed

And if you’re lucky… You’ll also get an email from the Google Search Console team.

Google Search Console – Coverage Issues Successfully Fixed

Using Yoast SEO:

For Yoast see their help page on ‘Sitemap Error: Unsupported format HTML‘. Or, do a Google search on ‘Yoast SEO Submitted URL Marked ‘noindex’.

Yoast SEO – Sitemap Error – Unsupported format HTML

There are several links on the Yoast Help page that could take you to potential solutions. Check that your sitemap conforms to the requirements and Yoast and Google Search Console. I.e. the Yoast sitemap ends in sitemap_index.xml, instead of sitemap.xml…

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