In short. Disable Include in Sitemap for the taxonomy, or use General > Exclude Terms with term IDs to exclude individual archives.
Definition: As of 17 October 2026, Rank Math documents excluding category or tag archives from its XML sitemap by switching off Include in Sitemap in the corresponding Sitemap Settings tab. Individual category or tag archives can be excluded through General > Exclude Terms, using their term IDs.
Key facts
- WordPress's Taxonomies documentation defines a taxonomy as a way to group posts; individual groups within it are terms.
- Rank Math's sitemap settings guide documents Include in Sitemap, Include in HTML Sitemap, and Include Empty Terms separately for Categories and Tags.
- Google's index exclusion documentation identifies
noindexas a rule for preventing indexing by search engines that support it.
How is a whole taxonomy excluded?
In the WordPress dashboard, the path is Rank Math SEO > Sitemap Settings. In Rank Math's configuration guide, the Categories tab controls category archives and the Tags tab controls tag archives. Switching Include in Sitemap off in the relevant tab excludes those archives from the XML sitemap.
The Include in HTML Sitemap switch controls a separate listing intended for visitors. Exclusion from that listing requires its own setting. The same guide also documents inclusion switches for Product Categories and Product Tags.
The Save Changes button at the bottom right saves the configuration. Rank Math states that leaving the settings page without saving loses the changes.
How is an individual category or tag excluded?
The General > Exclude Terms field accepts comma-separated IDs. Although Rank Math's guide calls these taxonomy IDs, its worked example identifies a particular category through tag_ID in the category editing URL:
yourwebsite.com/wp-admin/term.php?taxonomy=category&tag_ID=4&post_type=post
In this documented example, the value entered in Exclude Terms is:
4
The guide finds this identifier by opening Posts > Categories, selecting the category, and reading the editing URL. It states that the same process applies to other taxonomies. Multiple IDs are separated with commas. This field provides a narrower exclusion than switching off the taxonomy's Include in Sitemap control.
What happens to empty terms, and how is the result checked?
An empty category or tag has no posts or pages assigned to it. Rank Math's empty-term instructions say that enabling Include Empty Terms adds these archives to the sitemap. Leaving this switch off excludes empty archives while allowing populated terms to remain eligible through Include in Sitemap. The guide describes equivalent controls for empty product categories and product tags with no products.
For an enabled category or tag sitemap, its URL appears at the top of the corresponding settings tab. After saving, that URL provides the generated listing to inspect for excluded terms. Following a whole-taxonomy exclusion, the sitemap index provides the list of remaining sitemaps:
/sitemap_index.xml
The same documentation identifies caching as a possible reason a sitemap appears out of date and directs site owners to exclude sitemaps from caching.
Related terms
- XML sitemap
- How do I enable a sitemap in Rank Math?
- How do I exclude individual posts from Rank Math sitemaps?
- noindex
FAQ
Can I exclude one category while keeping the category sitemap?
Yes. You can enter that category's term ID in General > Exclude Terms, as described in Rank Math's sitemap guide, while keeping Categories > Include in Sitemap enabled.
Should I enable Include Empty Terms to remove empty tags?
Leave it off. Rank Math's Tags settings describe enabling the switch as the way to include tags with no posts or pages.
Does sitemap exclusion remove an archive from Google Search?
Sitemap exclusion alone supplies no indexing directive. If you need index exclusion, Google's noindex documentation specifies a meta tag or HTTP response header; Google must be able to crawl the archive to read the rule.
Sources
- Rank Math, "How to Configure Sitemaps in Rank Math", undated
- WordPress.org, "Taxonomies", updated 16 January 2023
- Google Search Central, "Block Search indexing with noindex", updated 10 December 2025
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