Multiple Blank Pages, Deleting, and SEO

Hoping for help (please point me in the right direction if I am in the wrong place)!!

I discovered that, once again, SOMEthing created a thousand or more blank pages on my site. Some have 404 error messages, others are blank. Contacted my wonderful web host who says they fixed whatever was causing it (Cron program?). They suggested just deleting all the pages, but I can’t.

I am using Yoast Premium, and each time I delete from within WordPress I get a notice to choose between a 410 message or a redirect. I just want to delete them. If I leave them in the trash, the list of “You put this in the trash, so what do you want to do” gets longer and doesn’t go away.

I read through various knowledge bases, and I gather that any of these options — redirect, 410, 404, or doing nothing — is bad for SEO (although mine is in the toilet anyway, and perhaps this is why).

The blank pages DO show up in the “xml site map,” where I also can’t (or don’t know how to) delete them. What should I do? I am tempted to look for a plugin for cleaning up unwanted posts without compromising SEO, but am hoping there’s a simple fix.

Any advice appreciated!!

Monica

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