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Yoast SEO Plugin: To Index or Not to index Categories?
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Taking a poll out there......In most cases would you want to index or NOT index your category pages using the Yoast SEO plugin?
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Thanks Dave!
Here are my settings:
Categories - noindex, follow
Tags - noindex, follow
Format - noindex, follow
Author Archives - noindex, follow and disable author archives
Date Archives - noindex, follow and disable the date-based archives
Media - noindex, follow
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HI Irving,
The Yoast default doesn't have anything checked making everything indexable and their tutorials don't do a very good job at helping people set it up correctly.
It's interesting to know all the differing opinions on what you should have indexed or not indexed.
Here are the settings I have:
Categories - noindex, follow
Tags - noindex, follow
Format - noindex, follow
Author Archives - noindex, follow and disable author archives
Date Archives - noindex, follow and disable the date-based archives
Media - noindex, follow
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Noindex is the way to go for category pages. I also don't let G index tags and archives.
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yes noindex,follow category and tag pages. It's the Yoast default setting i believe.

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