Yoast SEO setup: six settings worth checking after installation
Yoast SEO setup comes down to six settings: site representation (company or person), which content types Google can see, categories and tags, media pages, the sitemap, and author and date archives. The rest is title templates and descriptions for single posts. If you haven't checked these six since installation, it's worth doing now.
Author: The TellMyShop team. A guide for WordPress site and WooCommerce store owners: the cause, the manual fix and the same work in a chat conversation.
Last updated: · 6 min read
How to tell Yoast was set up “somehow”
A common story: an agency or a friend built the site, Yoast was installed from day one, and you've never opened its settings. The signs that something is wrong usually show up in Google, not in the dashboard:
- tag pages, author pages or pages for single images appear in search results,
- products or posts haven't reached Google for months, even though the site works,
- the results show the theme name or an empty title instead of your company name,
- Google Search Console lists a lot of pages “excluded” by a noindex tag.
This guide doesn't compare Yoast with other plugins. If you're still choosing, read Yoast or Rank Math. It also doesn't cover writing titles for single pages; that's in the guide to meta titles in WordPress. Here we deal with site-wide settings that affect hundreds of pages at once.
Six Yoast SEO settings in one table
You'll find all the settings in the dashboard under Yoast SEO → Settings. Group names may differ slightly from the description below depending on the plugin version. The full description is in Yoast's configuration guide.
| Setting | Where in Yoast | What to choose on a typical business site or store |
|---|---|---|
| Site representation | General, Site representation | organisation, company name and logo; person only for a personal site |
| Content types | Content types: homepage, posts, pages, products | all visible in search engines, title templates with the content name first |
| Categories and tags | Categories & tags | categories visible; tags hidden if there are hundreds of them without descriptions |
| Media pages | Advanced, Media pages | off, which is the default |
| XML sitemap | Site features | on, address submitted in Google Search Console |
| Author and date archives | Advanced | off on a site with a single author |
Each setting in turn: what to check
- Site representation. Choose whether the site belongs to an organisation or a person, enter the name and add a logo. Yoast uses this in structured data, which Google may use when describing your business. The fields are explained in Yoast's help on site representation.
- Content types. Each type (posts, pages, products) has a switch for visibility in search engines. Check that everything that should be in Google has it turned on. This is also where the title and description templates live, which apply when a single post has none of its own.
- Categories and tags. Usually leave categories visible and add descriptions to them. On many sites tags are dozens of pages with two posts each. If that's your case, hiding them from search engines tidies up the results. More in the post about WordPress categories and tags.
- Media pages. WordPress creates a separate page for every uploaded image. By default Yoast redirects these to the file itself, because a page with a single picture has no value. Leave this off unless you run a photo gallery. Details in Yoast's help on media pages.
- XML sitemap. Make sure the feature is on, open the sitemap address and submit it in Google Search Console. Google explains this in its guide to building and submitting a sitemap. We cover the sitemap itself in the post about the WordPress sitemap.
- Author and date archives. When one person writes the site, the author archive repeats the blog, and the date archive splits the same posts by month. Turning them off removes unneeded pages from Google.
Hiding a content type or an archive works through the noindex tag. Google has to visit the page again to see it, so the change in results isn't instant. How noindex works is described in Google's documentation on blocking indexing.
The most common mistake: hidden products or posts
The most dangerous setting is also the simplest: one visibility switch on a content type. Turned off for products, it hides the whole store from Google, and the dashboard shows nothing unusual, because the pages still work for people. It tends to happen after moving a site from a staging copy or importing settings.
If Search Console shows many pages excluded by noindex, start with that switch. The full route to finding the cause is in the guide page excluded by a noindex tag.
How the chat checks your Yoast settings
The TellMyShop plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce recognises the active SEO plugin and reads its effects on the site. In TellMyShop Free, your chat (Claude or ChatGPT) runs an SEO review: it finds missing and duplicate titles, empty descriptions and pages with noindex. It also checks a chosen page the way Google sees it. That's often enough to see which Yoast setting is misbehaving.
In TellMyShop Pro the chat also reads the Yoast settings themselves, so it can point to the cause, not just the symptom.
You: Products haven't been getting into Google for a month. Check whether it's Yoast.
Your chat: I checked three product pages the way Google sees them. Each has a noindex tag. In the Yoast settings, the Products content type has search engine visibility turned off. Posts and pages are set up correctly.
Saving this needs the Plugins switch in the TellMyShop panel.
You: I've turned it on. Save it.
Your chat: Saved. The product page no longer has a noindex tag. Google will see the change on its next visit, and you can speed that up in Search Console.
Card status: waiting for your “yes”I suggest one change to the Yoast settings:
old version: Products: visible in search engines: no
new version: Products: visible in search engines: yes
The values in this conversation are examples.
Changes to Yoast settings need the Plugins switch, which you turn on in the plugin panel. It lasts 24 hours and needs a database backup from today, which the plugin makes itself. Titles, descriptions, noindex and canonical addresses of single posts, pages and products the chat fixes straight after licence activation, without the switch. Each change gets a “before → after” preview, waits for your approval and goes into the change history, and you can undo most changes.
What the chat won't do: promise that your site will climb in Google after the settings change. Settings remove obstacles; the content does the rest.
Read more about what the chat reads and changes on the TellMyShop for WordPress and WooCommerce page. Prices are on the pricing page, and the free version on the free review page.
Questions and answers
Where are the Yoast SEO settings?
In the WordPress dashboard, in the Yoast SEO menu, under Settings. They are split into groups: general, site representation, content types, categories and tags, and advanced. The title and description of a single post are changed separately, in the Yoast box below the post content.
Do I need to set anything up after installing Yoast?
The defaults are sensible for most sites, but Yoast needs a few things from you: whether the site belongs to a company or a person, what the logo is, and which content types should be in Google. It is also worth checking author archives and tags, because on small sites they often create pages nobody needs.
Should I turn off author archives in Yoast SEO?
If one person writes on the site, the author archive shows the same posts as the blog and can usually be turned off. When there are several authors with their own bios, the archives can stay. It comes down to whether those pages are useful to anyone.
Can changing Yoast settings hurt my site in Google?
It can, if you hide a whole content type from Google by mistake, for example posts or products. So change one setting at a time, then check a few pages and the page indexing report in Google Search Console.
Can the chat set up Yoast SEO for me?
In TellMyShop Pro the chat reads the Yoast settings and points out the harmful ones, and changes them once you turn on the Plugins switch, with a preview and after your approval. Titles, descriptions and noindex on single posts it fixes straight after licence activation. TellMyShop Free shows the effects of the settings in the SEO review.
WordPress is a trademark of the WordPress Foundation. WooCommerce is a trademark of Automattic Inc. Claude is a trademark of Anthropic PBC. ChatGPT and OpenAI are trademarks of OpenAI. TellMyShop is not affiliated with these companies.