How do I keep a taxonomy archive out of search with Yoast?

Definition: A taxonomy groups WordPress posts by a category, tag or custom classification; its archive lists the matching posts. As of 17 October 2026, Yoast SEO documents search appearance settings that apply noindex to taxonomy archives, with a separate control for individual categories or tags.

Key facts

• Yoast's meta robots specification assigns noindex, follow to archive types excluded from search results through its settings.
• Yoast's noindex instructions place taxonomy-wide controls under Settings, then Categories & tags, and individual controls in the Advanced tab.
• Google's noindex documentation requires the archive to remain accessible to its crawler so that Google can read the directive.

Which archive does the setting affect?

WordPress's Taxonomy Templates documentation describes the page displayed after a category, tag or custom taxonomy link is followed: it lists posts filtered by that taxonomy, in reverse chronological order. This listing is the archive being configured.

Yoast’s noindex instructions distinguish the scope of each control. A taxonomy-wide setting applies across the selected taxonomy, while an individual category or tag has its own setting. The archive URL is the page to inspect when checking the result. Individual posts have separate indexability controls in Yoast.

How is a whole taxonomy excluded?

Yoast's noindex guide gives the configuration path in the WordPress dashboard: Yoast SEO, then Settings, then the taxonomy under Categories & tags. On the selected taxonomy's settings page, the search results toggle is switched off and Save changes is selected. The disabled toggle appears gray with an X.

Yoast's Categories & tags settings guide locates this option in Search appearance. The same page also has an option called Enable SEO controls and assessments. Switching that option off hides the Yoast sidebar or meta box for categories; the search appearance option controls inclusion in search results.

How is one category or tag excluded?

Yoast's individual-item instructions cover categories and tags alongside posts and pages. The category or tag is opened for editing, followed by the Yoast SEO sidebar or metabox. In Advanced, the setting Allow search engines to show this content in search results is set to No.

The same instructions say that editors and administrators have access to Advanced by default. If that section is missing, its access settings are a relevant check before changing the taxonomy-wide option.

What output should be checked?

Yoast's functional specification places the robots meta tag in the HTML document's head and gives this example for pages and archive types excluded from search:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow" />

The important value for index exclusion is noindex. Yoast combines applicable directives and resolves conflicts in favor of the most restrictive setting: noindex takes precedence over index, and nofollow over follow. The specification's example provides a pattern to check in the archive's HTML.

Google's implementation guidance recommends the URL Inspection tool to examine the HTML received by Googlebot, Google's crawler. The Page Indexing report can also monitor pages where Googlebot extracts noindex. A robots.txt crawl block prevents Googlebot from reading the tag, so crawl access remains necessary.

Related terms

• noindex
• Can Google read noindex on a page blocked by robots.txt?
• How do I set noindex for one page in Yoast SEO?
• How do I exclude a content type from Yoast sitemaps?

FAQ

Can I exclude a single tag archive?

Yes. Yoast's noindex guide includes individual tags. You can edit the tag and select No for search results in the Yoast Advanced tab.

Why does an archive still appear after I change the setting?

Google's debugging guidance says it needs to crawl the page after the directive is added. You can use URL Inspection to check the HTML Googlebot receives and whether robots.txt prevents access.

Sources

1. Yoast, "Yoast SEO Meta robots: Functional specification", undated
2. Yoast, "How to noindex URLs", updated 29 September 2026
3. Yoast, "Yoast SEO settings: Categories & tags", updated 21 April 2026
4. WordPress, "Taxonomy Templates", updated 29 October 2022
5. Google Search Central, "Block Search indexing with noindex", updated 10 December 2025

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