How to remove WordPress archive pages from Search results
As a WordPress user, you may have noticed that your category and tag archive pages are indexed by search engines and show up in search results. While these pages may be useful for organizing your content and improving your website’s navigation, they can also dilute your search engine rankings and potentially harm your SEO efforts.
If you’re looking to improve your website’s search engine performance, you may want to consider removing your category and tag archive pages from search results. In this blog post, we’ll show you how to do just that, using simple and straightforward techniques that can help boost your website’s search engine rankings and improve the user experience for your visitors. So, whether you’re a seasoned WordPress user or just starting out, read on to learn how to remove WordPress archive pages from search results.
What are WordPress Archive Pages?
WordPress archive pages are pages on your website that display a collection of posts based on a specific date, category, tag, author, or other taxonomy. These archive pages are automatically generated by WordPress and can be accessed by visitors using links in your website’s navigation, widgets, or search results.
Archive pages are important for organizing your content and improving your website’s navigation. They make it easy for visitors to find and browse content on your website based on their interests. However, these pages can also dilute your search engine rankings and potentially harm your SEO efforts if they are not optimized properly.
If you’re concerned about the impact of archive pages on your website’s search engine rankings, you may want to consider removing them from search results or using other techniques to optimize them for SEO. By doing so, you can ensure that your archive pages serve their intended purpose without negatively impacting your website’s performance.
Type of Archive Pages in WordPress Sites
WordPress has several different types of archive pages, these include:
Category Archive Pages
Category archives display a collection of posts that belong to a specific category.
Tag Archive Pages
Tag archives show posts that have been tagged with a specific tag.
Date Archive Pages
Date archives display posts that were published on a specific date or within a specific time range.
Author Archive Pages
Author archives display posts by a specific author.
Custom Post Type Archive Pages
Custom post type archives are similar to category archives, but for custom post types that you create.
How to remove WordPress archive pages from Search results using Yoast SEO Plugin
Yoast SEO Plugin is a popular WordPress plugin that provides tools for optimizing website content for search engines, including features such as XML sitemap generation, content analysis, and meta tag optimization. Yoast SEO plugin can also be used to exclude archive pages from Search engines results page by removing them from the XML sitemap.
Here are the step by step procedures for removing archive pages from Search results using Yoast SEO plugin but you must make sure you’re using the latest version of the SEO plugin:
1. Log in to your WordPress admin panel
2. Go to Yoast SEO plugin on your WordPress menu tab.
3. Under the SEO plugin, select the Settings tab.
4. In the Yoast SEO settings page, navigate to the Yoast Menu tab.
5. Now search for Categories and tags on the menu tab and click on Categories
6. Scroll down in the Categories page and look for Search appearance.
7. Click on the switch button and turn it off to disable Show categories in search results.
8. Save the Changes and wait for few days, so that Google can crawl the modified version of your XML sitemap after which all archive category pages will be removed and excluded from Search results.
Note: Follow the same process inorder to remove archive tag pages from Search results but make sure you select tagsin the step 5 above and also disable the Show tags in search results button like this
Conclusion
Removing WordPress archive pages from search results can help improve your website’s search engine performance and enhance the user experience for your visitors. By using the techniques outlined in this blog post, you can ensure that your website’s archive pages serve their intended purpose without negatively impacting your SEO efforts.
Originally published at https://jenune.com.