How to Remove Robots Meta Tag Completely from HTML

Resolved ikvaesolutions
(@ikvaesolutions)

3 years, 7 months ago
Previously we were using add_filter( 'wpseo_robots', '__return_false' ); to stop outputting robots meta in HTML.

However, it stops working from the recent update. Now, it outputs <meta name='robots' content='noindex, nofollow' />

When I return null for wpseo_robots filter, it outputs <meta name='robots' content='max-image-preview:large' />

Is there any other way to completely stop outputting ‘robots’ meta in HTML?
- This topic was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by ikvaesolutions.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

Md Mazedul Islam Khan
(@mazedulislamkhan)

3 years, 7 months ago
Before Yoast SEO v19.8, setting wpseo_robots to false was still outputting the robots meta but with the max-image-preview:large value on it.

In the latest version of Yoast SEO, setting wpseo_robots to false now set the content value to noindex, nofollow.

So, I doubt setting up wpseo_robots to false before disabling the robots meta completely on your site.

That said, while I don’t have a solution to remove the robots meta completely from your website, I do know that it has no effect when there’s no value in the content key. So, you may want to return an empty string i.e., from the wpseo_robots filter to see whether it return an empty value for you in the robots meta.
- This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Md Mazedul Islam Khan.
Thread Starter ikvaesolutions
(@ikvaesolutions)

3 years, 7 months ago
I managed to achieve the previous version’s behavior with the following combination of filters.
```
function ikva_remove_robots_meta() {
	return null;
}

add_filter('wpseo_robots', 'ikva_remove_robots_meta');
add_filter('wpseo_googlebot', 'ikva_remove_robots_meta');
add_filter('wpseo_bingbot', 'ikva_remove_robots_meta');
add_filter( 'wpseo_canonical', '__return_false' );
remove_filter('wp_robots', 'wp_robots_max_image_preview_large');
```
onico0
(@onico0)

3 years, 4 months ago

Hello,

So it means that Yoast made an update which affects the custom handlers that were previously wisely shared by the WordPress community, changing the indexing behaviour ?

Hopefully, I did not have critical content indexed or unindexed and @ikvaesolutions code snippets work like a charm to fix it again. Thanks!

Hope we can rely on it for the long term and Yoast will care about its code update in the future. SEO is a serious game.

naderjaber
(@naderjaber)

3 years, 4 months ago

I tried what @ikvaesolutions suggested and it worked, except for the last line.

I tried

remove_filter( 'wp_robots', 'wp_robots_max_image_preview_large' );

and (below is OP original but wan’t sure if the spaces made a difference)

remove_filter('wp_robots', 'wp_robots_max_image_preview_large')

I still get <meta name='robots' content='max-image-preview:large' />

Does anyone know how to remove the above line completely from the html?

Thanks
emreinci
(@emreinci)

3 years ago
```
// Noindex filter queries
function robotkaldirma() {
	return null;
}
if (strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], '?') !== false || strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], '/feed') !== false) {

add_filter('wpseo_robots', 'robotkaldirma');
add_filter('wpseo_googlebot', 'robotkaldirma');
add_filter('wpseo_bingbot', 'robotkaldirma');
add_filter( 'wpseo_canonical', '__return_false' );
remove_filter('wp_robots', 'wp_robots_max_image_preview_large');
	function eklenofollow(){
echo "<meta name='robots' content='noindex, nofollow'>";
	}
	add_action('wp_head','eklenofollow', 1,1);

}
```
if you add this code to your function.php file
yoursite.com/subpage?example
or
yoursite.com/subpage/?example
It will return with noindex tag

If you visit a normal page url such as yoursite.com/yourpage
meta robots tag that works like normal
will return.
index, follow how you set on yoast settings

It’s not important. 🙂
- This reply was modified 3 years ago by emreinci.