Categories “NoIndex” not working

Hello @devtestconcise,

Thanks for reaching out regarding noindexing your categories.

To provide some context, can you share the URL of the affected category? We look forward to hearing from you.

Hi,

Here is the Category URL – https://sagefamilylawyers.com.au/category/advice/.

Thanks

@devtestconcise Thanks for your reply.

We checked on the page in question and do see that the robots meta tag is being output as index as opposed to the expected value of noindex:

<meta name='robots' content='index, follow, max-image-preview:large, max-snippet:-1, max-video-preview:-1' />

If you clear your cache (server, plugin/theme, or CDN such as Cloudflare) does this resolve the issue? If you are not sure how to clear your server cache you should speak with your host provider.

Hi,

We have cleared everything and still we see the wrong Meta with index.

Are you 100% sure nothing wrong with your Plugin since we don’t have any other SEO related Plugins on the site.

Thanks

@devtestconcise Can you please confirm you are using the most recent release of Yoast SEO version 16.1.1? You can learn more about updating here: https://yoast.com/help/how-can-i-update-my-free-plugin/

Also, can you confirm you are using WordPress 5.8.1? You can check by clicking on the W in the top left and selecting About. If you need to update, please check with your host provider. Please know that if you are using an older version of WordPress Core you may experience unexpected behavior with Yoast. This guide explains more: https://yoast.com/why-we-dont-support-old-wordpress-versions/

If you update to the most current version of WordPress and Yoast SEO, does this resolve the issue?

If you have confirmed both WordPress, Yoast SEO, and all of your site’s other plugins and themes are up to date and the problem is still occurring, we would next recommend performing a conflict check. A plugin or theme conflict can sometimes cause functionality problems, errors, or unexpected behavior from the plugin. If you are unfamiliar with checking for conflicts, we have a step by step guide on how to check for conflicts available here: How to check for plugin conflicts.

Test this on your development or staging site, if you have one. If not, we recommend using the?Health Check & Troubleshooting?plugin. This plugin allows you to run a conflict check?without affecting normal visitors to your site.

Can you please confirm you have performed a complete conflict check by disabling other plugins, and resetting the theme to a default such as TwentyTwentyOne and let us know the results?

If you do not feel comfortable to do this yourself or if this does not solve your issue, our Yoast SEO Premium plugin comes with one year of (technical) support.

Hi,

Latest version is 17.3 and I am currently using that (WordPress version is 5.8.1). Are you asking to downgrade Plugin version to 16.1.1?

Thanks

Hi @devtestconcise

We apologize as we didn’t mean for you to downgrade to 16.1.1. Please do stay on the latest version of Yoast SEO v17.3.

We understand you’ve set the default for categories in Search Appearance to ‘not show in the search results’. Would it be possible for you to edit this specific category page (https://sagefamilylawyers.com.au/category/advice/) and go to the advanced tab of the Yoast SEO meta box and see if you’ve possibly changed the default setting from ‘no’ to ‘yes’ for that specific category? You can learn more about it here – https://yoast.com/help/how-do-i-noindex-urls/

Otherwise, we would recommend performing a conflict check, with a default WP theme and only Yoast SEO as the plugin enabled, just to rule out that there are any conflicting plugins or themes – https://yoast.com/help/how-to-check-for-plugin-conflicts/

We are going ahead and marking this issue as resolved due to inactivity. If you require any further assistance please create a new issue.

Hi,

I’ve just updated to latest version of the Plugin and the issue was resolved.

Thanks