Overview

When migrating from Yoast SEO to Search Atlas, you may notice that URL types you previously excluded from your sitemap — such as author pages, video pages, category pages, and tag pages — appear re-enabled in Search Atlas. This happens because Search Atlas maintains its own independent sitemap settings, and Yoast's exclusion rules do not carry over automatically. This article explains the current sitemap exclusion options available in Search Atlas, how they compare to Yoast, and what steps you can take right now to manage your sitemap effectively.

How Search Atlas Sitemap Settings Work

Search Atlas generates your sitemap automatically based on your site's content. You can access your sitemap settings inside the Search Atlas platform to view which URLs are currently included and make adjustments.

It is important to understand that Search Atlas and Yoast approach sitemap configuration differently:

• Yoast SEO allows you to disable entire URL types globally — for example, turning off all author archives, all tag pages, or all category pages with a single toggle.
• Search Atlas currently focuses on URL-level and page-level controls rather than broad post-type or taxonomy-level exclusions. These controls are accessible in your WordPress admin panel under Search Atlas → Settings, where you can find options to include or exclude individual URL types such as post types and taxonomies.

This means that after migrating, URL types that were globally suppressed in Yoast will not automatically carry over as excluded in Search Atlas. When you install Search Atlas and disable or remove Yoast, Search Atlas generates a fresh sitemap based on its own default settings — not Yoast's saved preferences. Those pages may reappear in your sitemap and, in some cases, surface with crawl errors, particularly if those pages return non-200 status codes or have other issues.

What You Can Do Right Now

While bulk post-type exclusion toggles are not yet available as a self-serve feature, there are practical steps you can take to reduce unwanted URLs in your sitemap:

1. Audit your sitemap errors: Log in to Search Atlas and navigate to your sitemap settings. Review any URLs flagged with errors and prioritise fixing or removing pages that should not be indexed.
2. Use noindex on unwanted page types: For author pages, tag archives, or category pages you do not want indexed, apply a noindex meta directive to those templates. Search Atlas respects noindex signals, so these pages will not pass SEO value.
3. Remove individual URLs: Where a specific URL is causing errors and should not appear in the sitemap, check whether your sitemap settings allow you to exclude it at the individual URL level.
4. Check your WordPress settings: For category, tag, and author archives, WordPress itself offers visibility controls. Setting these archives to noindex at the WordPress level helps ensure Search Atlas does not treat them as indexable pages.

If you are unsure which steps apply to your setup or need help confirming what sitemap controls are available in your account, reaching out to the support team is the fastest way to get accurate guidance for your specific configuration. When you do, please have the following ready:

• Your site URL
• The specific URL types you want to exclude (e.g. author pages, category pages, tag pages, video pages)
• The Search Atlas plugin version you have installed
• A note of any crawl errors you are seeing related to the excluded URL types

Yoast vs. Search Atlas: Feature Comparison

• Global post-type exclusion toggle: Available in Yoast — not yet available as a self-serve option in Search Atlas.
• Individual URL exclusion: Available in Search Atlas at the page level.
• Noindex support: Respected by both Yoast and Search Atlas.
• Automatic sitemap generation: Both tools generate sitemaps automatically based on your site's content.

Recommended Settings After Migrating From Yoast

To replicate your previous Yoast exclusions as closely as possible, review each of the following URL types and disable any that you had turned off in Yoast:

• Author archive pages — commonly disabled on single-author sites to avoid duplicate content.
• Category and tag archive pages — often excluded when they hold thin or duplicate content.
• Video sitemaps — disable if you do not host video content or use a dedicated video sitemap plugin.
• Custom post types — exclude any custom post types that should not be indexed or surfaced in search.

If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.