How to prevent Google from indexing low-value pages on WordPress

Understanding Indexing vs. Crawling

Before implementing any solution, it’s important to understand:

• Crawling: Google’s process of discovering pages on your site
• Indexing: Google adding those pages to its search database

How to tell Google not to index low quality page on WordPress

Our suggestions are simple and doable for all the WordPress users out there.

Using WordPress core settings

WordPress has built-in privacy settings that many site owners overlook:

1. Go to Settings → Reading
2. Find the section labeled “Search Engine Visibility”
3. Check the box that says “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”
4. Click “Save Changes”

Note: This is a site-wide setting. Use this only for development or temporary sites, not for selectively blocking specific pages.

Using an SEO Plugin

We are not advertising the plugins we suggest. These are reliable and popular plugins that can do the job for you. You can choose of of them or do research for other plugins. It’s your choice.

Option A: Yoast SEO

1. Install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin
2. Go to Yoast SEO → Search Appearance
3. Navigate to:
   • Content Types tab: For posts, pages, and custom post types
   • Taxonomies tab: For categories and tags
   • Archives tab: For author, date archives
4. Set “Show in search results?” to “No” for any content type you want to exclude
5. Save your changes

Option B: Rank Math

1. Install and activate Rank Math SEO
2. Go to Rank Math → Titles & Meta
3. Select the tab for the content type you want to modify
4. Toggle “Robots Meta” to “noindex” for the desired content types
5. Save your changes

Option C: All in One SEO

1. Install and activate All in One SEO
2. Go to All in One SEO → Search Appearance
3. Navigate to the appropriate tab for your content type
4. Set “Robots Meta” to include “noindex” for the content types you want to exclude
5. Save your changes

Method 3: For individual Posts or Pages

1. Edit the specific post or page you want to exclude
2. If using Yoast SEO:
   • Scroll down to the Yoast SEO section
   • Click the “Advanced” tab
   • Change “Allow search engines to show this Post in search results?” to “No”
3. If using Rank Math:
   • Scroll to the Rank Math section
   • Click “Advanced” tab
   • Set “Robots Meta” to include “noindex”
4. Save the post or page

Using robots.txt (For Crawling Control Only)

Important: robots.txt prevents crawling but not necessarily indexing. Pages can still be indexed if linked from other pages.

1. Go to SEO Plugin → Tools (location varies by plugin)
2. Find the robots.txt editor (Yoast: Tools → File Editor; Rank Math: General Settings → Edit robots.txt)
3. Add directives like:User-agent: * Disallow: /tag/ Disallow: /category/ Disallow: /author/
4. Save your changes

Remove Already-Indexed pages via Google Search Console

For pages already indexed that you want removed:

1. Log in to Google Search Console
2. Select your WordPress site
3. Go to “Removals” under “Index” section
4. Click “New Request” and enter the URL
5. Choose “Remove this URL only”
6. Submit the request

Remember: This is temporary (usually 90 days). Combine with one of the methods above for permanent prevention.

Best practices for managing WordPress indexation

To keep things organised on your site, we suggest this checklist so that you don’t have to deal with the low-value pages regularly.

1. Use Google Search Console to see what’s currently indexed
2. Don’t block indexing of valuable content
3. Common low-value pages to consider blocking:
   • Tag archives with few posts
   • Author archives for sites with only one author
   • Thin category pages
   • Paginated archives
   • Thank you pages
   • Login/admin pages
   • Duplicate content pages
4. Use Google’s URL Inspection tool to confirm pages have the correct noindex directive
5. Check Search Console monthly to ensure new low-value pages aren’t being indexed

Conclusion

WordPress site owners can effectively manage which pages Google indexes without needing advanced technical skills or risking site stability. All the suggestions are straightforward, but they can be changed or modified a few steps if WordPress makes an update. If your site is having this issue, book a call with us to get immediate consultant.