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.xml sitemap showing in SERP
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Our sitemap is showing in Google's SERP. While it's only for very specific queries that don't seem to have much value (it's a healthcare website and when a doctor who isn't with us is search with the brand name so 'John Smith Brand,' it shows if there's a first or last name that matches the query), is there a way to not make the sitemap indexed so it's not showing in the SERP.
I've seen the "x-robots-tag: noindex" as a possible option, but before taking any action wanted to see if this was still true and if it would work.
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Agreed, but had to do my due diligence to ask

Thanks for the feedback!
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You could go that route, but I would honestly ignore it and focus on some other issues ;).
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