When I posted about how to recover from Google panda, I mentioned that you should let your quality pages be indexed by Google and keep others as “noindex”, but “dofollow”.
This goes for your tags, categories, author pages, and monthly archive pages.
Two main reasons to noindex WordPress categories and tags:
- Avoid post duplication.
- Only quality pages will become part of Google Search.
The second reason is very important after the Google Panda algo became live because Google mentioned that Google Panda now focuses on quality content.
Obviously your tags and categories pages can’t be considered “quality pages” for search engines. They are good for user-navigation, but they don’t add any value to search engines.
Many WordPress users are not aware of how they can keep WordPress blog tags and categories as “noindex”.
Here are some ways to add the “noindex” attribute to your category and tag pages.
Ways To Noindex WordPress Categories and Tags:
Noindex your tags and categories
This part is subjective as it depends on what SEO plugin you are using. If you are using SEO plugins like SEO by Yoast or All in one SEO, follow the links I’ve listed below, where I explain how you can “noindex” tags, categories, and author archive pages.
If you are using your theme’s SEO option, you need to use the “noindex” option in front of the tags and categories archive.
Do let us know if you are keeping your WordPress tags and categories as “noindex” or “doindex”. Which methods are you using to keep them “noindex”?
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Here’s what Yoast is for me: Way too many fancy features with a steep learning curve. I have historically used yoast for all of the technical functionality but when it comes down to it, the upgraded version does so much I just really don’t need. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they just create extra stuff to get you to pay more. Personally, I can't live without the Ink for All app because of how it accounts for search engine optimization.
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