Google has deindexed a page it thinks is set to 'noindex', but is in fact still set to 'index'

[d.bird]

A page on our WordPress powered website has had an error message thrown up in GSC to say it is included in the sitemap but set to 'noindex'. The page has also been removed from Google's search results.

Page is https://www.onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk/bad-credit-mortgages/how-to-get-a-mortgage-with-bad-credit/

Looking at the page code, plus using Screaming Frog and Ahrefs crawlers, the page is very clearly still set to 'index'. The SEO plugin we use has not been changed to 'noindex' the page.

I have asked for it to be reindexed via GSC but I'm concerned why Google thinks this page was asked to be noindexed.

Can anyone help with this one? Has anyone seen this before, been hit with this recently, got any advice...?

[effectdigital]

This is really weird. Really really weird!

As you say, your site's source code seems to confirm that it is set to index. If we look here, we can plainly see that the coding syntax for a no-index directive is "noindex" (all one word).

Let's look at your source code:

• https://d.pr/i/RAYzE4.png

Yep, everything seems fine there! But what if a script is modifying your source code and including the directive - and Google's picking up on that?

If we look at the modified source code which I rendered and saved to a file here:

• https://d.pr/f/1ZKNfF.php

... we can see, there are no problems here either:

• https://d.pr/i/kcxO0z.png

Wow - that's really unhelpful!

Let's see what happens if we specifically search Google's live index for the URL:

• https://d.pr/i/944xFl.png

Interestingly, when we search Google's index for this page, we get this page returned instead.

It makes sense that Google would return that URL if it couldn't return the main URL, as one is nested inside of the other. If everything was healthy, we'd see Google listing both URLs instead of just one of them. Even if you edit my index query to remove the trailing slash, you still only get the nested URL (not the one you want to be showing, which is at a slightly higher-up level)

Another thought I had was, hmm maybe this is a canonical tag gone rogue. That bore no fruit either, as this page (which you want to index, yet won't) canonicals to this page - and both of those URLs are exactly the same. As such, it's obvious that we can't blame the canonical tag either! I even viewed the modified source to see if it got altered, no dice (the canonical tag is just fine)

Maybe the XML file is telling Google not to index the URL?

• https://d.pr/i/dvbCfy.png

Nope - that's fine too! No problems there...

Could the robots.txt file be interfering?

• https://d.pr/i/DmAN1t.png

No! Darn it, that's not the problem

I know that a no-index or blocking directive can also be sent through the HTTP header (usually via X-robots). Let's check the response header of your URL out:

• https://d.pr/i/cy0MoW.png

Nothing there that really raises my eyebrow. This is enabled and set to block, but to be honest that shouldn't affect Google's crawling at all. Anyone correct me if I am wrong, but defending your site against cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks doesn't impede crawling right?

Fudge it. Let's fling it through Google's Page-Speed Insights tool. Usually that will tell you if something is being blocked and why...

• https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk%2Fbad-credit-mortgages%2Fhow-to-get-a-mortgage-with-bad-credit%2F&tab=desktop

Nothing useful still!

Google's mobile friendly tool gives us some, semi-interesting information:

• https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly?view=fetch-info&id=g4uSC2GcoipwxKk-PtqN2Q

But it doesn't say the page can't be loaded. It only says some resources which the page pulls in can't be loaded! And guess what? They're all external things on other websites (other than a few theme related bits, but nothing IMO that should stop the whole page loading).

Let's try DeepCrawl's indexability checker (they make amazing software by the way... expensive though):

• https://d.pr/i/Iyrzq5.png

Sir... there is NO GOOD REASON why your URL shouldn't be indexed. I am 99.9% certain you have encountered a legit Google bug. Post about it here. Only Google can help you at this juncture

[jasongmcmahon]

Hi there, check that caching isn; the issues at server & CMS levels. Other than that reindex the page via GSC

[d.bird]

Thanks for going into so much detail, much appreciated.

We've asked Google to reindex it and 'validate the fix', even though we can't find anything to fix!

[d.bird]

Thanks, I'll take a look