In short. In Advanced Mode, keep Author Archives enabled and choose custom Author Robots Meta with No Index to request exclusion from indexing.
Definition: Rank Math controls WordPress author archives, the pages associated with individual authors, through its Authors settings. Author Archives enables or disables these archives; Author Robots Meta sets the indexing instructions for enabled archives.
Key facts
As of 17 October 2026, the documentation describes these controls:
- Rank Math's Titles and Meta guide places author archive controls in the Authors section.
- The Advanced Mode guide says Easy Mode exposes only the author archive enable/disable option.
- Google's noindex documentation requires crawl access so Googlebot, Google's crawler, can read an indexing exclusion.
Where are the author indexing settings?
Rank Math's Advanced Mode guide gives the path WordPress Dashboard > Rank Math SEO > Dashboard. The Advanced Mode selector is in the top right. The author controls are under Rank Math SEO > Titles & Meta > Authors.
Advanced Mode exposes Author Robots Meta and additional author settings. Enabled Author Archives is also a prerequisite: disabling archives hides the additional options even in Advanced Mode. Checking both conditions explains why the robots settings can be missing from this screen.
The Titles and Meta guide describes the configuration for an enabled archive: Author Robots Meta can inherit the website's default robots metadata or use custom metadata. Choosing Custom reveals the available directives. Selecting No Index applies an indexing exclusion to author archives. Saving the settings records the change.
Disabling Author Archives has a separate effect: Rank Math redirects author archive URLs to the website's homepage.
How can the robots output be checked?
A robots meta tag is an HTML element that carries indexing instructions. Google's noindex guide gives this example for the page's HTML head:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
This is Google's minimal example of the directive to look for when checking an archive. A robots.txt file controls crawler access. Google must be able to fetch the archive to read its noindex instruction; blocking that URL in robots.txt prevents that reading.
The same guide recommends the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to inspect the HTML Googlebot receives. The Page Indexing report also identifies pages where Googlebot extracts noindex. A previously indexed archive needs another crawl before Google processes the changed instruction.
Related terms
- noindex
- robots.txt
- Can Google read noindex on a page blocked by robots.txt?
- How do I set noindex on a page in Rank Math?
FAQ
Can I keep author archives available while excluding them from indexing?
Yes. Rank Math's Titles and Meta guide describes keeping Author Archives enabled and applying No Index through Author Robots Meta.
Why can I see only the archive enable/disable option?
You may be using Easy Mode. Rank Math's Advanced Mode guide says the additional author controls require Advanced Mode and enabled Author Archives.
Sources
- Rank Math, "Titles and Meta Options and Settings", undated
- Rank Math, "Advanced Mode: Available Modules and Options", undated
- Google Search Central, "Block Search indexing with noindex", 10 December 2025
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