In the process of updating the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin to version 3.0.0, have rewrote the plugin code, added new features (added WordPress SEO Plugin Warnings for the Stallion, Yoast and All In One SEO Plugins) and making the plugin translatable.
This article will be important when the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin version 3.0.0 is released. This is a work in progress (it’s a lot of work), it will contain all the plugin tutorial/help documentation.
Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Options
You will see mention of the Stallion Responsive Theme in the help files below, in the future I plan to move some of the SEO theme features (some can’t be moved) to the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin so more users can access better SEO.
Currently Stallion Responsive includes hundreds of SEO features (taken 10+ years to build), long term I plan to move lots of SEO features which should work with all themes to the Stallion SEO plugin and create a new WordPress SEO theme which works alongside the Stallion SEO plugin.
Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Documentation
Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Not Index Options Tab
The first feature added to the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin were the Not Index features, the Not Index features are a replacement for the damaging robots noindex meta tags features that’s part of the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin and the All In One SEO Plugin.
Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Not Index Options
The noindex robots meta prevents the indexing of a webpage, the link benefit that would normally be ‘spent’ on a webpage (spent generating Google SERPs) that’s noindexed is wasted.
The Stallion WordPress SEO Plugins Not Index features (uses canonical URLs) prevents the indexing of a webpage, the link benefit that would normally be ‘spent’ on a webpage that’s Not Indexed is mostly recycled back to the webpage within the canonical URL tag.
Note: All the Not Indexed features discussed below are part of the Stallion Responsive Theme (under “Stallion Theme” > “SEO Advanced Options” : “Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin”). Stallion Responsive Theme users should NOT install the stand alone Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin.
WordPress Login Page
Under the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Options : Not Index Options Tab – WordPress Login Pages.
There are two options.
- Index Login Pages
- Block Login Pages**
Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Not Index Login Pages Options
Index Login Pages – Completely SEO safe, it’s the default WordPress behavior.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin does nothing to WordPress Login Pages.
Block Login Pages** – Completely SEO safe, this is the best SEO option.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin adds a canonical URL to the Home page on WordPress Login Pages.
The WordPress login page has no SEO value, block it via
The Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Option > “WordPress Login Pages” : “Block Login Pages**”
See the more detailed WordPress SEO Tutorial Login Page article.
WordPress Date Archives
Under the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Options : Not Index Options Tab – WordPress Date Archives.
There are two options.
- Index Date Archives
- Block All Date Archives**
Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Not Index Date Archives Options
Index Date Archives – Completely SEO safe, it’s the default WordPress behavior, if you are in any doubt about not indexing date archives, use this option.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin does nothing to date archives.
Block All Date Archives** – This is safe SEO wise for WordPress sites with category or tag archives which are indexed. It’s important to have one type of archive (categories are usually the best SEO option) for search engines to access your WordPress Post based content.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin adds a canonical URL to the sites home page on ALL date archive pages.
See the more detailed WordPress SEO Tutorial Date Archives article.
WordPress Author Archives
Under the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Options : Not Index Options Tab – WordPress Author Archives.
There are three options.
- Index Author Archives
- Block All Author Archives^^
- Index First Author Archives Only : Block Paged 2,3,4…
Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Not Index Author Options
Index Author Archives – Completely SEO safe, it’s the default WordPress behavior, if you are in any doubt about not indexing author archives, use this option.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin does nothing to author archives.
Block All Author Archives^^ – This is safe SEO wise for single Author WordPress sites with category or tag archives which are indexed. It’s important to have one type of archive (categories are usually the best SEO option) for search engines to access your WordPress Post based content. This is the best option for most single author sites.
For multiple Author WordPress sites there could be value in having them indexed, see WordPress SEO Tutorial Author Archives link below.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin adds a canonical URL to the sites home page on ALL author archive pages.
Index First Author Archives Only : Block Paged 2,3,4… – This is safe SEO wise for most WordPress sites. IF you decide to keep Author Archives (see WordPress SEO Tutorial Author Archives Link below) this is the best SEO option.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin adds a canonical URL to the author archives first page on all paged author archives.
The first page of author archives will be spidered and indexed by Google. Author archive pages 2, 3, 4 etc… will be spidered, but not indexed by Google. Most of the SEO link benefit from author archive pages 2, 3, 4 etc… will be recycled back to author archive page 1 (the pages that’s indexed in Google).
The SEO benefit of this is most of the ranking benefit is concentrated on the first page of a set of author archives, the first page is more likely to rank for any SERPs it targets.
See the more detailed WordPress SEO Tutorial Author Archives article.
WordPress Search Result Archives
Under the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Options : Not Index Options Tab – WordPress Search Result Archives.
There are three options.
- Index Search Results
- Block All Search Results
- Index First Search Result Only : Block Paged 2,3,4…
Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Not Index Search Results Archives Options
Index Search Results – Completely SEO safe, it’s the default WordPress behavior, if you are in any doubt about not indexing search results archives, use this option.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin does nothing to search results archives.
Block All Search Results – Unlikely to cause any SEO damage blocking all search results, but there’s no harm from indexing search results, so not recommended.
If you block search results you can’t benefit from linking directly to them, see the WordPress SEO Tutorial Search Result Archives Link below.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin adds a canonical URL to the sites home page on ALL search results archive pages.
Index First Search Result Only : Block Paged 2,3,4… – This is safe SEO wise for most WordPress sites, this is the best option.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin adds a canonical URL to the search results first page on all paged search results.
The first page of search result archives will be spidered and indexed by Google. Search result archive pages 2, 3, 4 etc… will be spidered, but not indexed by Google. Most of the SEO link benefit from search result archive pages 2, 3, 4 etc… will be recycled back to search result archive page 1 (the pages that’s indexed in Google).
The SEO benefit of this is most of the ranking benefit is concentrated on the first page of a set of search result archives, the first page is more likely to rank for any SERPs it targets.
See the more detailed WordPress SEO Tutorial Search Result Archives article.
WordPress Category Archives
Under the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Options : Not Index Options Tab – WordPress Category Archives.
There are three options.
- Index All Categories^^
- Block All Categories
- Index First Categories Only : Block Paged 2,3,4…^^
WordPress SEO Category Archives
Index All Categories^^ – Completely SEO safe, it’s the default WordPress behavior, if you are in any doubt about not indexing categories, use this option.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin does nothing to categories.
Block All Categories – This is seriously damaging SEO wise (hence the red color), it’s added as an option for completeness. There are few scenarios where blocking the indexing of categories makes sense.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin adds a canonical URL to the sites home page on ALL category pages.
Index First Categories Only : Block Paged 2,3,4…^^ – This is safe SEO wise for WordPress sites NOT using the Stallion Responsive Theme. If you aren’t a Stallion Responsive Theme user this is the best option.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin adds a canonical URL to the categories first page on all paged categories.
See the more detailed WordPress SEO Tutorial Category Archives article.
WordPress Tag Archives
Under the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Options : Not Index Options Tab – WordPress Tag Archives.
There are three options.
- Index All Tags
- Block All Tags
- Index First Tag Only : Block Paged 2,3,4…^^
Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Not Index Tag Options
Index All Tags^^ – Completely SEO safe, it’s the default WordPress behavior, if you are in any doubt about not indexing tags, use this option.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin does nothing to tags.
Block All Tags – This COULD be seriously damaging SEO wise (hence the red color). There are a few scenarios where blocking the indexing of tags makes sense (see WordPress SEO Tutorial Tag Archives link below).
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin adds a canonical URL to the sites home page on ALL tag pages.
SEO Tip : PageRank (PR) sculpting no longer works, hasn’t worked since around 2009, if you’ve read a WordPress SEO tutorial suggesting noindexing (or nofollow) tags it’s way, way out of date.
Index First Tag Only : Block Paged 2,3,4…^^ – This is safe SEO wise for WordPress sites NOT using the Stallion Responsive Theme. If you aren’t a Stallion Responsive Theme user this is the best option IF you decide to keep your tags (see WordPress SEO Tutorial Tag Archives link below).
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin adds a canonical URL to the tags first page on all paged tags.
The first page of tag archives will be spidered and indexed by Google. Tag pages 2, 3, 4 etc… will be spidered, but not indexed by Google. Most of the SEO link benefit from tag pages 2, 3, 4 etc… will be recycled back to tag page 1 (the pages that’s indexed in Google).
The SEO benefit of this is most of the ranking benefit is concentrated on the first page of a set of tag archives, the first page is more likely to rank for any SERPs it targets.
See the more detailed WordPress SEO Tutorial Tag Archives article.
WordPress Home Page Archives
Under the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Options : Not Index Options Tab – WordPress Home Page Archives.
There are two options.
- Index Home Paged Archives
- Index Home Page Only : Block Paged 2,3,4…^^
Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Not Index Home Page Archives Options
Index Home Paged Archives – Completely SEO safe, it’s the default WordPress behavior, if you are in any doubt about not indexing homepage archives, use this option.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin does nothing to home page archives.
Index Home Page Only : Block Paged 2,3,4…^^ – This is safe SEO wise for most WordPress sites, this is the best option.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin adds a canonical URL to the home page archives first page (the home page) on all paged home page archives.
The first page of home page archives (usually the home page) will be spidered and indexed by Google. Home page archive pages 2, 3, 4 etc… will be spidered, but not indexed by Google. Most of the SEO link benefit from home page archive pages 2, 3, 4 etc… will be recycled back to home page archive page 1 (the pages that’s indexed in Google: usually the home page).
The SEO benefit of this is most of the ranking benefit is concentrated on the first page of a set of home page archives, the first page is more likely to rank for any SERPs it targets.
This feature works no matter what options are set under “Settings” > “Reading” : “Front page displays”.
See the more detailed WordPress SEO Tutorial Home Page Archives article.
WordPress Paged Comments on Posts and Pages
Under the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Options : Not Index Options Tab – WordPress Paged Comments on Posts and Pages.
There are two options.
- Index All Paged Comments
- Index Main Post/Page Only : Block Paged Comments 2,3,4…
Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Not Index Paged Comments Options
This option only has an impact if your WordPress site has Posts/Pages with a lot of comments AND you’ve set Paginated Comments via “Settings” >> “Discussion” : “Break comments into pages with….” which breaks Posts with a lot of comments into multiple pages (Paged Comments).
WordPress Break Comments Into Pages
If you haven’t ticked “Break comments into pages with….” the following Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin option does nothing. See WordPress SEO Tutorial below for reasons to set this option.
Index All Paged Comments – It’s the default WordPress behavior, if you are in any doubt about not indexing paginated comments, use this option.
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin does nothing to paginated comments pages on WordPress Posts and Static Pages.
Index Main Post/Page Only : Block Paged Comments 2,3,4… – This is safe SEO wise for most WordPress sites, if you do NOT use the Stallion Responsive Theme this is the best option, if you do use the Stallion Responsive theme this might not be the best option : there’s a Stallion Responsive feature which uses the paginated comments for SEO gain (see WordPress SEO Tutorial link below).
When this option is set the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin adds a canonical URL to the Main Post/Page on all paginated comments pages.
The Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin includes a warning upon activation of paginated comments is enabled:
“Paging comments is enabled. This is not needed in 999 out of 1000 cases, so we recommend to disable it.
Simply uncheck the box before “Break comments into pages…” on the Comment settings page.”
Yoast WordPress SEO Paging Comments is Enabled Warning
In earlier versions of Yoast SEO this used to be a Big RED warning:
WordPress SEO Paging Comments is Enabled
This is terrible performance SEO advice for any WordPress sites with popular articles with lots of comments (see WordPress SEO Tutorial link below). The best performance SEO advice is ALWAYS tick the “Break comments into pages…” option, always have paginated comments pages.
See the more detailed WordPress SEO Tutorial Paginated Comments article.
Stallion SEO Plugin Clean Head
All the output of this plugin is hidden in the head section of the code. If you can’t find the canonical code when viewing source of a webpage set NOT Cleaner Head. This will load some additional HTML comment code surrounding the canonical URLs.
See the more detailed WordPress SEO Tutorial Clean Head article.
SEO Plugin Warnings Tab
Stallion SEO Warnings
Under the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Options : SEO Plugin Warnings Tab : Stallion WordPress SEO Warnings
There are two options.
- ON
- OFF
Stallion WordPress SEO Warnings
When “Stallion WordPress SEO Warnings” is set to “ON” the Stallion SEO Plugin checks the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Options (checks it’s own SEO options) for potentially damaging SEO settings related to the Not Index settings (canonical URL usage to recycle link benefit).
If ALL the SEO damaging Stallion WordPress SEO Not Index options are active Stallion outputs 2 red SEO warnings (related to categories and tags), 1 orange SEO notice (author archives) and 1 blue SEO reminders (date archives).
ALL Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Stallion SEO Warnings
The above screenshot (2 red warnings) is the worse case scenario of the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin user ticking both the Not Index Tags and Not Index Categories settings: I hope no one does that, blocking both Tags and Categories is a bad SEO choice! In my experience the best SEO strategy is NEVER block categories and seriously consider not using tags (limit the number of tags to an absolute minimum). If you follow this SEO strategy you would set categories and tags to be indexed: the only question is fully indexed or just the first page of each category/tag. For Stallion Responsive Theme users setting fully index makes sense, for none Stallion Responsive theme users set index first page only.
All the damaging Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin options related to Not Index are found under “Stallion SEO” > “Not Index” Tab.
See the full WordPress SEO Tutorial Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Warnings.
Yoast SEO Warnings
The Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin includes SEO damaging section wide NOINDEX options. If you use the Yoast SEO plugin set the option Yoast SEO Warnings to ON to check for problems.
Under the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Options : SEO Plugin Warnings Tab : Yoast WordPress SEO Warnings
There are two options.
- ON
- OFF
Yoast WordPress SEO Warnings
When “Yoast WordPress SEO Warnings” is set to “ON” and the “Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin” is active (if the Yoast SEO plugin isn’t installed and active, the ON option does nothing) the Stallion SEO Plugin checks the Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin Options for damaging SEO settings related to the noindex robots meta tags.
If ALL the SEO damaging Yoast WordPress SEO noindex robots meta tags options are active Stallion outputs 9 SEO warnings!
ALL Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Yoast SEO Warnings
The above screenshot is an extreme case of the Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin user ticking all the noindex options: I hope no one does that!
All the damaging Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin options related to noindex are found under “SEO” > “Titles and Metas” – under the tabs “Post Types”, “Taxonomies”, “Archives”, and “Other”, be very careful with these options.
Yoast SEO Noindex SEO Damaging Options
Some of the Yoast NOINDEX options are really, really STUPID, why would any user want all their WordPress Posts and/or Static Pages NOT indexed in Google etc…?
See the full WordPress SEO Tutorial Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin Warnings.
All In One SEO Warnings
The All In One SEO Plugin includes SEO damaging section wide NOINDEX and NOFOLLOW options. If you use the All In One SEO plugin set the option All In One SEO Warnings to ON to check for problems.
Under the Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin Options : SEO Plugin Warnings Tab : All In One SEO Warnings
There are two options.
- ON
- OFF
WordPress All In One Seo Warnings
When “All In One SEO Warnings” is set to “ON” and the “All In One SEO Plugin” is active (if the All In One SEO plugin isn’t installed and active, the ON option does nothing) the Stallion SEO Plugin checks the All In One SEO Plugin Options for damaging SEO options related to Noindex and Nofollow robots meta tags.
If ALL the SEO damaging All In One SEO noindex and nofollow options are active (click the image below to see all bad All In One SEO Plugin options) Stallion outputs about a dozen warnings!
WordPress All in One SEO Plugin Damaging Options
ALL Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin All In One SEO Warnings Screenshot
ALL Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin All In One SEO Warnings
The above screenshot is an extreme case of the All In One SEO Plugin user ticking all the noindex and nofollow options: I hope no one does that!
All the damaging All In One SEO Plugin options are found under “All In One SEO” > “General Settings” : “Noindex Settings”, be very careful with these options.
See the full WordPress SEO Tutorial All In One SEO Plugin Warnings.
Disallow WP-Admin via a robots.txt
Everything under example.tld/wp-admin/ are admin resources and shouldn’t be indexed by Google. Occasionally WordPress pages under the admin section will be indexed by Google by mistake.
Currently not a Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin feature, but worth covering. Consider using your sites robots.txt file to block search engines from indexing everything under the /wp-admin/ WordPress folder.
WordPress Robots.txt File
See the more detailed WordPress SEO Tutorial Disallow WP-Admin via a robots.txt article.
David Law
Website - SEO Gold Services
Hi,
We are going through an audit of all our plugins for upcoming GDPR and we are trying to find out what cookies your plugin might use?
And what if there is any would they be collecting or tracking? As we will need to add them to our privacy page and allow ‘Opt-in’ and ‘Opt-out’
Many thanks
The Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin doesn’t create any cookies and doesn’t collect any user data nor track users, so nothing to do to be GDPR compliant.
My Stallion Responsive SEO Theme (which I’m no longer selling, but plenty of sites use it) doesn’t in itself create cookies etc… but has advertising features built in: AdSense, Chitika, Kontera etc… so if those ad platforms are active a site needs a relevant privacy notice etc… likes any site which runs AdSense.
That reminds me, I have to sort out the comment subscription plugin on this site, was hoping the plugin developer would put out a GDPR compliant update, but nothing so far!
David