Yoast SEO Plugin FAQ: UX, Settings, Noindex, Canonicals, Sitemaps, Schema, and Troubleshooting

Tony Yan

·November 4, 2025

·8 min read

Cover — Image Source: statics.mylandingpages.co

Where do I control index/noindex defaults for posts, pages, categories, and tags in Yoast?

Short answer: Set defaults in Yoast’s Settings for each content type and taxonomy. Then override per URL in the editor if needed.

Steps (2024–2025 UI):

Go to WordPress Admin > Yoast SEO > Settings.
Open Content types to choose whether Posts, Pages, and custom post types “Show in search results.” Set Yes (index) or No (noindex).
Open Taxonomies to do the same for Categories, Tags, and any custom taxonomies.
Older UI label note: Some screenshots on the web still show Search Appearance; the current docs call this Settings. Yoast explains the flow in their Configuration guide (updated 2025) under the content types/taxonomies sections: see the official Yoast configuration guide.

Why it matters: These toggles control whether Yoast outputs indexable metadata and whether items appear in Yoast’s sitemaps. Setting Tags to “No” is common on sites that don’t want tag archives indexed.

Validate it:

Open any post or category on the front end, view source, and check if a robots meta tag appears with content="noindex" when set to No. Google clarifies how the robots meta tag is interpreted in its robots meta tags documentation (Google, 2025).

How do I noindex a single post or page in Yoast?

Short answer: In the post editor, edit the Yoast panel > Advanced, and switch “Allow search engines to show this post in search results?” to No. Update the post.

Steps:

Edit the post or page in WordPress.
Scroll to the Yoast SEO panel/meta box. Click the gear icon (Advanced).
Set “Allow search engines to show this [post/page] in search results?” to No. Save/Update.

Quick check:

View source on the URL and confirm a robots meta noindex is present.
Inspect the URL in Google Search Console to confirm “Indexing allowed?” is No and that a noindex directive is detected.

Tip: If you noindex a page long-term, remove or update internal links pointing to it and exclude it from sitemaps (Yoast does this automatically for items set to No in “Show in search results”).

How do canonical URLs work in Yoast, and when should I override them?

Short answer: Yoast automatically outputs a canonical tag on each page (usually self-referencing). Override it only when you intentionally consolidate duplicates or designate a preferred URL.

Steps to override per URL:

Edit the post/page > Yoast SEO panel > Advanced (gear) > Canonical URL.
Enter the absolute preferred URL (including https://). Update.

When to override:

Duplicate or near-duplicate pages where one should be the primary.
Tracking or parameterized variants that should consolidate signals to the clean version.
Canonicalizing a print version back to the main article.

Background: Google’s canonicalization guidance (updated 2025) recommends using a single, consistent canonical per set of duplicates and ensuring internal links and sitemaps point to that canonical. See the Google canonicalization guide.

Validate it:

In Google Search Console’s URL Inspection, compare the “User-declared canonical” to “Google-selected canonical.” If they differ, review Google’s canonicalization troubleshooting advice (Google, 2025).

Common pitfalls:

Multiple canonicals on a page (from a theme or second SEO plugin). Ensure only one canonical tag exists.
Relative canonical URLs — always use absolute URLs.
Canonical pointing to a noindexed or 404 page.

Google chose a different canonical (“Alternate page with proper canonical”). How do I fix it?

Short answer: Align your signals. Make sure the canonical tag, internal links, and sitemaps consistently point to the same preferred URL.

Quick checks:

Is your “User-declared canonical” the same URL you use in internal links? If not, standardize links.
Does your sitemap include the canonical URL only (not duplicates or parameterized pages)? If not, fix your sitemap settings.
Are there multiple canonical tags or OG URL mismatches? Remove duplicates; keep one canonical.

Fix sequence:

Ensure a single absolute canonical is present (Yoast > per-URL Advanced).
Update internal links to the canonical URL.
Make sure only canonical URLs are included in Yoast sitemaps (adjust type/taxonomy settings as needed).
Remove thin/duplicate pages or redirect them to the canonical when appropriate.
Reinspect the URL in GSC and Request Indexing.

Why Google might disagree: Weak or conflicting signals, thin/duplicated content, or stronger external signals pointing to another URL. Google outlines these scenarios in its canonicalization troubleshooting guide (2025).

What is my Yoast sitemap URL and what should/shouldn’t be in it?

Short answer: The sitemap index is usually at https://yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml. It should reference only URLs you intend to be indexable and canonical.

Key points:

Yoast generates a sitemap index containing one or more child sitemaps (e.g., posts-sitemap.xml, page-sitemap.xml, category-sitemap.xml).
Content types or taxonomies you set to “Show in search results: No” aren’t included.
Prefer clean, canonical URLs in the sitemap (no tracking parameters or duplicates). Yoast’s FAQs clarify how their XML sitemaps work; see the Yoast XML sitemaps FAQ (2025).

Validate it:

Open sitemap_index.xml in the browser to review included child sitemaps and counts.
Spot check a few URLs and confirm they resolve with 200 status, are indexable, and have the correct canonical.

How do I submit and validate Yoast sitemaps in Google Search Console?

Short answer: Submit the sitemap index URL in GSC and monitor processing.

Steps:

In GSC, go to Indexing > Sitemaps.
Enter sitemap_index.xml and click Submit.
After processing, check Discovered URLs and any reported issues. Google’s documentation covers submission and monitoring basics; see the build and submit sitemaps guide (Google, 2025).

If you update settings (e.g., toggling a taxonomy to No):

Wait for Google to recrawl the sitemap, or resubmit to prompt faster processing.
Use URL Inspection to request indexing for critical pages after fixes.

Yoast breadcrumbs are enabled but not showing. What am I missing?

Short answer: Enabling breadcrumbs in Yoast is step one; you must also output them in your theme/template.

Steps:

In WordPress Admin, go to Yoast SEO > Settings > Breadcrumbs and enable the feature.

In your theme file where breadcrumbs should appear (often single.php or header.php), add the snippet:

<?php if ( function_exists('yoast_breadcrumb') ) {
    yoast_breadcrumb('<nav aria-label="breadcrumbs" id="breadcrumbs">','</nav>');
} ?>

Clear caches (plugin and CDN) and reload.

Validate it:

Use Google’s Rich Results Test and check for Breadcrumb structured data on the page. The tool is at the official Rich Results Test (Google).

Common pitfalls:

Snippet placed in a template that doesn’t render for that content type.
Theme overrides or page builders replacing header templates; place the snippet in the correct template hook/area.

How do I set up Organization/Person schema and validate it?

Short answer: Configure Site representation in Yoast, then verify JSON-LD output on the front end.

Steps:

Yoast SEO > Settings > General > Site representation (or run the first-time configuration wizard).
Choose Organization or Person, set the name, logo/photo, and social profiles.
Save changes and view your homepage source to confirm Organization/Person entities in the JSON-LD graph.

Why it matters: This informs your sitewide identity and can support knowledge panels and rich results in search.

Validate it:

Use the Rich Results Test and confirm that Organization or Person schema is detected.
Yoast outlines social/profile and site representation options in their 2025 guide to social optimization; see the Yoast social media optimization overview (2025).

Facebook/Twitter show the wrong image or title. How do I fix OG/Twitter cards with Yoast?

Short answer: Set defaults in Yoast Settings > Social sharing, and customize per post in the Social tab. Then clear platform caches.

Steps:

Yoast SEO > Settings > Social sharing: enable Open Graph and Twitter Card metadata, set defaults (e.g., fallback image).
In the post editor, open the Yoast Social tab and specify custom title, description, and image for Facebook and Twitter.
Update the post, purge caches, and refresh the share debugger tools to clear cached previews.

Validate it:

Use Facebook’s Sharing Debugger and X (Twitter) Card Validator to scrape again and confirm the correct preview. Yoast’s 2025 article summarizes these steps in its social media optimization overview.

Note on content workflow:

If you create content at scale, generating consistent titles/descriptions and multilingual variants before publishing can reduce social preview errors. Tools like QuickCreator can help plan and produce on-page content that complements your Yoast setup. Disclosure: QuickCreator is our product.

Why are pages noindexed even though I didn’t change anything?

Short answer: Check for three common culprits: WordPress sitewide discourage setting, Yoast default toggles, and conflicting headers/plugins.

Quick diagnostic checklist:

WordPress Settings > Reading > “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” should be unchecked.
Yoast SEO > Settings > Content types/Taxonomies: confirm “Show in search results” is set to Yes for types you want indexed.
Per-post Yoast > Advanced: ensure individual pages aren’t set to No (noindex).
Response headers: check with browser dev tools or curl for an X-Robots-Tag: noindex header.
Plugin conflicts: disable other SEO/caching/security plugins temporarily to test; ensure only one SEO plugin outputs meta tags.
Cache/CDN: purge caches; stale pages can continue to serve old noindex meta.

Why it happens: Robots directives can come from theme templates, plugins, or server headers—not just Yoast. Google explains how robots meta is interpreted in its robots meta tags guide (2025).

After a migration, my canonical domain is wrong. How do I fix it?

Short answer: Clear caches, confirm site URLs, and resave Yoast/WordPress settings so pages render canonicals with the correct protocol and domain.

Steps:

In WordPress Settings > General, confirm WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) use the correct domain and https.
Purge all caches (caching plugin, object cache, CDN) and regenerate any static page caches.
In Yoast, resave Settings > Content types/Taxonomies to refresh indexability context; then review a few posts’ Yoast Advanced tab to ensure no hardcoded canonicals are pointing to the old domain.
Spot check source on a few pages to confirm the canonical tag domain is correct.
If you previously set per-URL canonicals to the old domain, update them or remove overrides to let Yoast generate self-referencing canonicals for the new domain.

Validate it:

Use GSC’s URL Inspection on a few key pages and compare “User-declared” vs “Google-selected” canonical.

When should I use a redirect vs a canonical, and how should I handle parameters/UTMs?

Short answer: Use redirects when a page is obsolete or moved permanently; use canonicals when similar pages must coexist but you want a primary URL to consolidate signals.

Guidelines:

301 redirect if the content relocated or if you’re consolidating duplicates you no longer need.
Canonical if you must keep variants (e.g., print pages, filtered views) but want to consolidate ranking signals.
For campaign parameters (e.g., UTM), keep internal links pointing to the clean, canonical URL; ensure the canonical tag references the clean URL. Avoid placing parameterized URLs in sitemaps.

Reference: Google’s core recommendations on consolidating duplicate URLs remain stable; see the Google canonicalization guide (2025).

Bonus: How do I sanity-check my setup after big changes?

A fast post-change audit:

Sitemaps: Open sitemap_index.xml; spot check child sitemaps for indexable, canonical URLs only. Cross-check with the Google sitemaps build/submit guide (2025).
Canonicals: Inspect a few representative pages (home, category, post). Ensure a single absolute canonical per page.
Robots: Confirm no sitewide noindex (WP Reading), no rogue X-Robots-Tag, and correct per-URL Yoast settings. Refer back to Google’s robots meta tags guide (2025).
Structured data: Run the homepage and a post through the Rich Results Test (Google) and verify Breadcrumbs and Organization/Person.
Social: Re-scrape important pages with share debugger tools and confirm OG/Twitter images/titles are correct. Yoast’s 2025 overview of social optimization provides a succinct checklist; see the Yoast social optimization article.

Glossary (quick refresh)

Canonical URL: The preferred URL among duplicate or near-duplicate pages; declared in a tag and reinforced by internal links and sitemaps.
Noindex: A directive (robots meta or HTTP header) telling search engines not to index a page.
Sitemap index: A top-level XML file that lists child sitemaps (e.g., posts, pages); common default with Yoast at /sitemap_index.xml.
Breadcrumbs: Navigational trail and corresponding structured data that can appear in search results.

Sources and further reading (selected)

Yoast configuration and settings overview (updated 2025): Yoast configuration guide
Canonicals: Google canonicalization guide (2025) and canonicalization troubleshooting (2025)
Robots and sitemaps: robots meta tags (Google, 2025) and build and submit sitemaps (Google, 2025)
Structured data validation: Rich Results Test (Google)
Social configuration context: Yoast social media optimization overview (2025)