Mistake: sitemap and noindex disagreeing with each other
You noindex thin pages, then your sitemap generator — built from the same table — keeps listing them. Google crawls them repeatedly because the sitemap says "important," reads noindex, and logs a coverage conflict. Wasted crawls, confused signals.
Fix:
— Step 1. Owner: dev. The sitemap query and the indexability flag must read from one source of truth. A page is in the sitemap IF AND ONLY IF it is index,follow.
— Step 2. Owner: SEO. Diff the sitemap against a crawl of meta-robots. Gate: zero URLs that are in the sitemap AND noindex.
— Step 3. Owner: dev. Add a CI check that fails the build if any sitemap entry resolves to a noindex page.
— Step 4. Owner: SEO. Confirm GSC "Submitted and indexed" rises and "Excluded by noindex (in sitemap)" goes to zero.
Guardrail: sitemap membership is derived from the indexability flag, never maintained separately.
Ship gate: don't publish until all boxes are checked.
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Mistake: sitemap and noindex disagreeing with each other
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