Here is a screen shot of my site map. Anything on there that should be checked or shouldn't? Thanks

Hey Tom, Google finds that as an error only because it wants to crawl the whole site. It doesn't take into account that you don't want those pages to be crawled.

In any case, those errors in Webmaster Tools don't directly knock your rankings. They are just indications that something is off, and that "something" could be bad, or in this case, neutral.

I figured as much. I know any of the other errors would be bad like 404's and such (which I don't have). I didn't think a "noindex" would be bad. It just drives me crazy because I see the word "error".

Hi Thomas. Just a quick message to say that I am busy teaching this and next week. Filling in for another lecturer who is stuck in Malaysia due to lock down.I will do my best to squeeze in time to look into your query.

Thank you very much!

Hi Thomas,

If you do not wish for categories and tags to be indexed, then you need to turn those settings off.

See Lesson 3 of this training where I explain what to do and why?

Basically, the concept here is that when you tell Google bots that you do not wish to index certain pages or tags, you indicate it in your settings (in this case using All in One SEO).

Because the sitemap will also indicate what pages, tags, archives, etc to index. You need to indicate it there too. That is, the taxonomies that you define as Noindex must tally with the sitemap.

That is why this error happens. On one hand, we tell Google to index all taxonomies using robots.txt. On the other hand, the settings on our pages, tags, categories or archives say to not index.

So, make sure to follow the training. And make sure that if you do not wish to index categories and tags, then in the setting (you showed in your screen shot) is turned off.

And make sure after you save this changed setting, re-submit your url. Then validate the fix. And wait for Google to validate.

Thanks for the answer. Also, my other question is: Do I actually not want them to follow my tags and categories? Is this recommended? Basically should I or shouldn't I have them follow both or either?

I checked out the lesson. Thank you. I attached the screen shots of my new settings. I think I have a newer version of All In One than what was in your lesson. I didn't have media attachments being followed in no index settings, but I do now. I was also wondering why their are 2 pages boxes in the Default to NOINDEX in Noindex Settings?

Looks great!

Yup. The digital landscape is always changing. As such, new versions may look different. But the options will still be there. Unless not needed.

The 2 pages thing looks odd. Could be a bug. Leave it be. I am sure they will notice in time, and correct that.

Have a great weekend! :)

It depends. Do you want them to follow the tags and categories? Do these add any value to your content?

If your category adds value to your post or page, then do noindex + follow. If not, then noindex + nofollow. Same for tags.

I don't think the categories do anything. And there isn't a link to my categories anywhere on my site I don't think. And I was basically asking if it added value in the sense "Does Google like to see tag info?". etc... I didn't know if having tag info was beneficial in the serps or if possible it wold hurt because of duplicate content.

The categories help to organize your content.

For example, my website - https://asiatravelgems.com/ features many countries. Each country is a page as well as a category. As such, as I write the next level content, it is categorized under the respective country.

For example, https://asiatravelgems.com/indonesia/ is a web page as well as a category.

When I write the next level, about Bali, it is categorized under Indonesia - https://asiatravelgems.com/indonesia/bali/

And so forth.

This categorizing of content makes the website looks organized, and easy for Google to understand your content.

There is a link to the category. When you scroll down the Bali page, at the bottom of the page, just before the comments, there are categories and tags. Click on the category - Indonesia, and you will go to this page - https://asiatravelgems.com/category/indonesia/

On that page, you can see all the pages and posts that are under this category.

Sometimes, the category or tag page can get ranked on Google.

That's kind of what I was thinking. Should I have Google than follow and index my categories? I was thinking I should, it's just the error I was getting in Google Webmaster Tools that made me nervous.

It is all up to you, Thomas.

If you like Google to rank your categories, then yes - index and follow.

The common practice is not to index. This is because we want our posts and pages to rank rather than the categories. We want to lead readers to our pages and posts. Not to the categories.

I ended up indexing my categories. I put in for validation and they have already done it. I now have 0 errors. Thanks for your help!

You're welcome 😊

You're welcome Shwana.
Yes, pls update me. :)

My pleasure elores! :)

Glad you found it informative and helpful.

May everything you do succeed & prosper! :)

My pleasure Elaine. :)

May everything you do succeed & prosper! :)

You're welcome, Alejandra. :)

Glad you found it helpful, and have bookmarked it.

May everything you do succeed & prosper! :)

Oh yes. That's right. Thanks for the reminder, Mikael.

I was focusing on what happened to me, and how I resolved the issue. And most of my issues were because of NoIndex in those areas.

I will add a page to mention this part.

Thanks again.

Thanks again Mikael. I have added a new page to the training to address this point. Please take a look and let me know what you think? :)

You are welcome - it looks great with the extra page:-) Sure it will help a lot of people as I have seen many people asking about it recently.

Thanks again. :)

Yes, one of the reasons why I decided to do this training. I too saw many asking about this.

Tim, thank you for sharing this information.

My pleasure, Louis. :)

Welcome!