author archive disabled / still shows in search results

  • Resolved jimario

    (@jimario)


    6 years, 1 month ago

    Hi, I have Yoast SEO installed. Great plugin. However, it’s allowing my username to show up in Google search results as an author archive link. The link goes directly to the homepage rather than an author archive page.

    I’ve seen similar questions to this in the forum but I have not seen a direct answer to this particular question:

    Is it possible to 1) have author archive disabled and 2) not have the author archive link be a part of the sitemap that Yoast generates?

    I considered just deleting the author.php file so that it can create a 404 error which I could then just request Google remove from search results. However, there is no author.php file in the theme folder. Please help.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Sa?a

    (@stodorovic)

    The author-sitemap.xml is automatically disabled if you disable author archive. I’ve checked your website and I don’t see author sitemap.

    If you remove file author.php then WP will use default template. It isn’t good aproach if you want to send 404 error.

    I see that google index contains author pages (type “inurl:author site:www.yourwebsite.com” in google search), but it returns 404 (or 301) when I’ve tried to open it. It’s standard behavior if author pages are disabled (or user is removed).

    You should manually remove these pages from google index – https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/6349986?hl=en.

    Thread Starter jimario

    (@jimario)

    Thanks. I did that and yet the link still survives in the google results. Also, a link to an xml file is now showing up in the search results: https://www.cnacomputerrepair.com/xmlrpc.php?rsd

    Pcosta88

    (@pcosta88)

    Hi,

    You identified several issues. We have responded to them below.

    A. Thanks. I did that and yet the link still survives in the google results.
    Can you confirm if you use Fetch as Googlebot that the issue is resolved? This will force Google to update the index. You may need to use it several times. This guide explains more:?https://kb.yoast.com/kb/fetch-as-googlebot/.

    B. Also, a link to an xml file is now showing up in the search results: https://www.cnacomputerrepair.com/xmlrpc.php?rsd
    We are not sure why Google has indexed the file. We suggest blocking it using robots.txt.

    This guide explains more about how to use a disallow rule to block files: https://searchengineland.com/a-deeper-look-at-robotstxt-17573.

    And this guide explains how to edit the robots.txt file: https://kb.yoast.com/kb/how-to-edit-robots-txt-through-yoast-seo/.

    Once you have blocked it in robots, use Fetch as GoogleBot above and hopefully Google will drop the link off in the SERPs.

    Plugin Support devnihil

    (@devnihil)

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

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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