How to enable or disable author archive pages

Author archive pages list all content written by a specific user on your site. It is possible to enable or disable the author archives both in Yoast SEO and in Yoast SEO Premium. If you have author archives enabled, your site will have an archive per user, showing all the posts they’ve created. In this article, we’ll explain how you can enable and disable the author archive pages.

If you want people to find author archives on your site, but you don’t want the author archives to show up in the search results, you can also noindex your author archives. It’s possible to do this for all of your author archives, but you can also noindex certain individual author archives.

How to enable or disable author archive pages in Yoast SEO

To disable or enable author archive pages, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to your WordPress website.

    When you’re logged in, you will be in your ‘Dashboard’.

  2. Click on ‘Yoast SEO’ in the sidebar

    On the left-hand side, you will see a menu. In that menu, click on ‘Yoast SEO’.

  3. Click on ‘Settings’.

    The ‘Yoast SEO’ settings will expand providing you with additional options. Click on ‘Settings’.
    Screenshot of the settings menu item in Yoast SEO

  4. In the Yoast SEO settings menu, click ‘Advanced’ and then ‘Author archives’.

    In the Yoast SEO settings menu on the left-hand side, find the heading ‘Advanced’ and click it. In the menu that expands, click ‘Author archives’ to go to the Author archives settings.
    Screenshot of the Author archives menu item in the Yoast SEO settings.

  5. Toggle the ‘Enable author archives’ switch to match your site setup.

    Single author sites should disable the author archives to avoid duplicate content errors. When disabled, Yoast SEO will redirect the author archive pages to the homepage and remove the author sitemap. To disable the feature, switch the toggle off.

    Multiple author sites should enable the author archives and customize the author sitemap. When enabled, the author archive pages can be accessed and Yoast SEO will create the author sitemap. To enable the feature, switch the toggle on.
    Screenshot of the 'Enable author archives' toggle in the Yoast SEO Author archives settings.

  6. Click ‘Save changes’.

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