XML Sitemaps and Indexation Triage for Small WordPress Sites

Small WordPress sites often face indexation failures due to contradictions between robots.txt and noindex signals. While robots.txt controls crawler access, it does not reliably remove URLs from the index. Additionally, poor XML sitemap hygiene—including redirects and noindex pages—often leads to an increase in Discovered - currently not indexed status. Effective triage requires distinguishing between access rules and index signals, moving beyond common misconceptions about crawl budget or soft 404s to ensure proper page visibility.