How to Noindex URLs in WordPress 2023

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How to Noindex URLs in WordPress?

When it comes to opening a blog or website the most loved CMS (Content Management System) is WordPress it is used by most of the bloggers and internet marketers. They don’t only use WordPress but even suggest others use this CMS and I am one among those bloggers and marketers. When someone asks me which CMS to use the only name comes to my mind is WordPress.

People love to use WordPress because it is very simple to use and even if someone has installed WordPress for the first time they can use it very easily. When we open a blog or website we have some pages or posts which we don’t want Google and any other search engines to index.

I am going to cover the same topic in this article of mine, I will tell you the procedure which you need to follow to noindex URLs in WordPress.

We will use a WordPress plugin to noindex posts and pages of your website and the plugin about which I am talking is WordPress SEO by Yoast. This plugin is used by many bloggers and I am sure even you have installed this plugin on your WordPress site.

But if you have not installed this plugin on your website then I highly recommend you to install this plugin because this one helps a lot to optimize your website for SEO.

How to use WordPress SEO by Yoast to Noindex URLs in WordPress?

So let’s get started and check out the procedure which you need to follow to noindex URLs (posts and pages) of your site by using WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin.

With the help of this plugin, we can add noindex meta tag to following parts of your website.

  • Individual Post or Page.
  • All categories, tags and other taxonomies.
  • Subpages of your archives.
  • Search result and 404 page.
  • And the entire website.

How to Noindex post or pages in WordPress?

To make an individual post or page noindex, you have to edit it and scroll down and find SEO by Yoast box (option) and click on the gear icon, refer the image embedded below.

After that, you have to select noindex from the drop-down menu (Meta robots index) and update the post or page.

How to Noindex categories, tags and other taxonomies in WordPress?

If you want to noindex categories, tags or other taxonomies then you have to log in to your WordPress dashboard first and then click on Yoast SEO option which you can find in the left sidebar.

When you click on the SEO by Yoast option you will get few more options of the plugin from there click on Titles & Metas. After that click on Taxonomies tab.

You will find Categories in the taxonomies tab of Titles & Metas section of the plugin, just below that you will find Meta Robots toggle the button to noindex from index.

You have to follow the same procedure for tags and other taxonomies and finally scroll down and click on Save Changes button.

How to Noindex subpages of archives in WordPress?

To noindex subpages of archives, you have to first click on the Yoast SEO option from the sidebar and click on Titles & Metas. Select Others tab from there.

After selecting Others tab you will get Sitewide meta settings, look for Subpages of archives there. Just toggle the button from index to noindex, scroll down to the end of the page and click on Save Changes.

How to Noindex special pages in WordPress?

Search results page and 404 error page these pages are noindex by default so there is no need to make any kind of changes.

How to Noindex entire website in WordPress?

If you want to noindex your entire website then we can’t use this plugin (Yoast SEO) but we get an option to do so in WordPress settings.

Click on Settings which you can find the left sidebar and then on Reading, refer the image which I have embedded below.

When you click on Reading we get many options and within those, we have one which is termed as Search Engine Visibility, all you have to do is tick the option “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” and save the changes.

By doing so all the search engine will be blocked with the help of robots.txt

So this was how you can noindex URLs in WordPress, I hope you are clear with all the steps which are mentioned in this guide. But if you have any kind of doubts then you can leave your comment below.

If you want to remove any URL from Google’s Index then follow this link to read my guide.

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