Settings checked
Site: https://brightpathtutoring.example (WordPress 6.6, Yoast SEO, one author). You did not give the Yoast version, so menu names below may vary by version.
| Row | Content type (your label) | Show in search | In sitemap | Your intent | Search result | Sitemap result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | Posts | yes | yes | want in Google | Match | Match |
| S2 | Pages | yes | yes | want in Google | Match | Match |
| S3 | Tutors (custom post type) | no | yes | want in Google ("tutor profiles") | Conflict | Mismatch |
| S4 | Media attachments | yes | no | do not want ("attachment pages") | Conflict | Mismatch |
| S5 | Category archives | yes | yes | "Category archives are fine" | Match | Match |
| S6 | Tag archives | yes | yes | do not want | Conflict | Match |
| S7 | Author archives | yes | yes | do not want | Conflict | Match |
| S8 | Date archives | yes | no | do not want | Conflict | Mismatch |
Rows checked: 8. Search result: 3 Match, 5 Conflict. Sitemap result (show in search and in sitemap disagree): 3 Mismatch (S3, S4, S8). Reading setting: "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" is CHECKED.
Findings
| # | Severity | Where | Current | Expected | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | Critical | Settings > Reading | Discourage box checked | Unchecked | Since WordPress 5.3 this box adds a robots meta tag with noindex, nofollow, so the live site asks not to be indexed. |
| F2 | High | S3 Tutors (custom post type) | Show in search: no | yes | You want tutor profiles in Google; noindex asks Google to leave them out. |
| F3 | High | robots.txt line "Disallow: /tutors/" | Crawling blocked | Line removed | If tutor profiles live under /tutors/ (please confirm), Google cannot crawl them, so it cannot see their content or their robots tag. |
| F4 | Medium | S3 Tutors (custom post type) | noindex, in sitemap yes | index, in sitemap yes | Search and sitemap values disagree. |
| F5 | Medium | S4 Media attachments | index, in sitemap no | noindex, in sitemap no | Search and sitemap values disagree. |
| F6 | Medium | S8 Date archives | index, in sitemap no | noindex, in sitemap no | Search and sitemap values disagree. |
| F7 | Low | S4 Media attachments | Show in search: yes | no | You do not want attachment pages in search. |
| F8 | Low | S6 Tag archives | Show in search: yes; in sitemap: yes | no; no | You do not want tag pages in search. |
| F9 | Low | S7 Author archives | Show in search: yes; in sitemap: yes | no; no | You do not want author pages in search; site_facts says one author. |
| F10 | Low | S8 Date archives | Show in search: yes | no | You do not want date pages in search. |
| F11 | Low | robots.txt line "Noindex: /tag/" | Present | Removed | Google does not support noindex in robots.txt, so this line does not keep tags out. F8 is the working fix. |
Note on F4 to F6: Yoast's help page says removing a content type from search results also removes it from the sitemap, and showing it shows it in the sitemap (https://yoast.com/help/how-to-customize-the-sitemap-index/). Your list has S3, S4 and S8 with the two values apart. Where did you read the "in sitemap" values: the Yoast settings screen or the live sitemap file?
Severity counts
| Severity | Findings | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | F1 | 1 |
| High | F2, F3 | 2 |
| Medium | F4, F5, F6 | 3 |
| Low | F7, F8, F9, F10, F11 | 5 |
| Total | 11 |
Total = 1 + 2 + 3 + 5 = 11 findings, counted from the findings table, across 8 settings rows, the Reading screen and robots.txt.
Fix order
- F1: Settings > Reading, untick "Discourage search engines from indexing this site", save.
- F3 and F11: replace robots.txt with the file below (removes "Disallow: /tutors/" and "Noindex: /tag/").
- F2 and F4: Yoast SEO > Settings > Content types > Tutors, set "Show Tutors in search results" to on, save.
- F8: Yoast SEO > Settings > Categories & tags > Tags, set "Show in search results" to off, save.
- F9 and F10, with F6: in the Advanced section of Yoast SEO > Settings, set Author archives and Date archives "Show in search results" to off, save.
- F7 and F5: the Media attachments setting. Its location in Yoast is not confirmed in the sources and menu names vary by version; tell me where it appears in your Yoast screens and I will name the exact change.
Proposed robots.txt:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
These changes let Google crawl and index the pages you want and ask it to leave out the ones you do not. They do not guarantee rankings or traffic.
What to check next
- Run URL Inspection in Google Search Console on the home page, one post and one tutor profile, and confirm Google reports indexing allowed.
- Confirm the tutor profile URL base (/tutors/ or other) so F3 is aimed at the right path.
- Answer the F4 to F6 question (settings screen or live sitemap) so I can tell whether the sitemap needs a separate fix.
- After the changes, open the live sitemap index and check that S3 Tutors appears and S4, S6, S7 and S8 do not.
Needs your decision
- Approve each setting change in Fix order before anyone edits WordPress or Yoast.
- Approve the new robots.txt file before it replaces the current one.