Overview
If your WordPress sitemap has a duplicate homepage, contains pages it shouldn't (like your site's header or footer templates), or is missing pages you expect to see, the fix lives inside your RankMath SEO plugin settings — not inside Search Atlas. This article walks you through each issue step by step.
Fix a Duplicate Homepage in the Sitemap
A homepage typically appears twice because WordPress registers it under two different URLs — the root URL (yourdomain.com/) and a static front page (yourdomain.com/home/). RankMath may include both.
- In your WordPress dashboard, go to Settings → Reading.
- Confirm Your homepage displays is set to A static page, and the correct page is selected as the Homepage.
- Open your RankMath Sitemap settings and review the options that control which URLs are included. Disable or adjust any setting that causes both the root URL and the static front page to be added simultaneously.
- Open your sitemap at yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml and verify the homepage appears only once after saving.
If you previously had a page titled "Home" that is no longer your front page, set that old page to Draft or apply a noindex tag via RankMath's per-page settings to remove it from the sitemap.
Remove Header and Footer Pages from the Sitemap
WordPress themes that use block-based or full-site editing (FSE) sometimes register header and footer templates as individual pages, and RankMath may pick them up. There are two general approaches to exclude them.
Option 1 — Noindex the page (recommended):
- Open the page in the WordPress editor.
- Locate the RankMath SEO meta box or sidebar panel for that page.
- Find the Robots Meta setting and set it to No Index.
- Save or update the page. RankMath will automatically remove noindexed pages from your sitemap.
Option 2 — Exclude the post type entirely:
- Go to your RankMath Sitemap Settings.
- Locate the tab or section for the relevant post type (e.g., Pages).
- Disable sitemap inclusion for any post type that only contains template pages you never want indexed.
Note: Noindex removes the page from both the sitemap and search engine indexes. If you only want to hide a page from the sitemap without fully noindexing it, consult the RankMath documentation for the specific toggle or option available in your version of the plugin.
Diagnose Missing Pages in the Sitemap
If a page you expect to see is absent from your sitemap, work through the following checks:
- Confirm the page is Published (not Draft, Pending, or Private).
- Open the page in the WordPress editor and check that RankMath's Robots Meta setting is not set to No Index.
- Verify that the page's post type is enabled for sitemap inclusion in your RankMath Sitemap Settings.
- Clear any sitemap cache inside RankMath, then re-check yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml.
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.