Filters and example code for Yoast SEO robots or WP robots.txt

wordpress_robots_custom.php

<?php
/********* DO NOT COPY THE PARTS ABOVE THIS LINE *********/

/*
 * Replace Disallow with Allow Generated Robots.txt
 * Credit: Unknown
 * Last Tested: June 09 2020 using WordPress 5.4.1
 */

add_filter('robots_txt','custom_robots');

function custom_robots($output) {
     $public = get_option( 'blog_public' );
     if ( '0' != $public )
     return str_replace('Disallow','Allow',$output);
}

yoast_seo_robots_callback_hooks.php

<?php
/********* DO NOT COPY THE PARTS ABOVE THIS LINE *********/

/* Check which functions have been used to hook into `wp_robots`
 * Credit: Yoast team
 * Last Tested: Unknown 
 */

\add_filter( 'wp_robots', 'list_hooks' , \PHP_INT_MAX);

function list_hooks( $robots ) {
	global $wp_filter;

	echo "<!-- This is a list of callback functions hooked into the 'wp_robots' filter:";
	echo json_encode($wp_filter['wp_robots'], JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
	echo "-->";

	return $robots;
}

yoast_seo_robots_change_author_archive.php

/*
 * Change meta robots to index all author archive pages
 * Credit: Yoast development team
 * Last Tested: Jul 20 2023 using Yoast SEO 20.11 on WordPress 6.2.2
 */

add_filter( 'wpseo_robots', 'yoast_seo_robots_change_author_archive' );

function yoast_seo_robots_change_author_archive( $robots ) {
  if ( is_author() ) {
    return 'index, follow, max-image-preview:large, max-snippet:-1, max-video-preview:-1';
  } else {
    return $robots;
  }
}

yoast_seo_robots_remove.php

<?php
/********* DO NOT COPY THE PARTS ABOVE THIS LINE *********/

/*
 * Remove robots meta tags from Yoast SEO
 * Credit: Yoast development team
 * Last Tested: May 22 2024 using Yoast SEO 22.7 on WordPress 6.5.3
 */

add_filter( 'wpseo_robots', '__return_empty_array' ); // Removes Yoast ouptut and returns to WP core output
add_filter( 'wp_robots', '__return_false' ); // Disable core output. Use with above to disable completely.

// Older versions
add_filter( 'wpseo_robots', '__return_false' ); // Yoast SEO 19.8 or older
add_filter( 'wpseo_googlebot', '__return_false' ); // Yoast SEO 14.x - Deprecated
add_filter( 'wpseo_bingbot', '__return_false' ); // Yoast SEO 14.x - Deprecated

yoast_seo_robots_remove_search.php

<?php
/********* DO NOT COPY THE PARTS ABOVE THIS LINE *********/

/*
 * Change meta robots using Yoast SEO
 * Credit: Yoast development team
 * Last Tested: Nov 1 2021 using Yoast SEO 17.4 on WordPress 5.8.1
 */

add_filter( 'wpseo_robots', 'yoast_seo_robots_remove_search' );

function yoast_seo_robots_remove_search( $robots ) {
  if ( is_search() ) {
    return array();
  } else {
    return $robots;
  }
}

yoast_seo_robots_remove_single.php

<?php
/********* DO NOT COPY THE PARTS ABOVE THIS LINE *********/

/*
 * Change meta robots using Yoast SEO
 * Credit: Yoast development team
 * Last Tested: Dec 12 2017 using Yoast SEO 9.2.1 on WordPress 5.0
 *********
 * DIFFERENT POST TYPES
 * Post: Change 123456 to the post ID
 * Page: Change is_single to is_page and 123456 to the page ID
 * Custom Post Type: Change is_single to is_singular and 123456 to the 'post_type_slug'
    Example: is_singular( 'cpt_slug' )
 *********
 * MULTIPLE ITEMS
 * Multiple of the same type can use an array.
    Example: is_single( array( 123456, 234567, 345678 ) )
 * Multiple of different types can repeat the if statement
 *********
 * The return empty array removes the robots tag on the page
 * Or you can return index/noindex follow/nofollow like
 * return 'noindex, follow';
 * Or
 * return 'noindex, nofollow';
 */

add_filter( 'wpseo_robots', 'yoast_seo_robots_remove_single' );

function yoast_seo_robots_remove_single( $robots ) {
  if ( is_single ( 123456 ) ) {
    return array();
  } else {
    return $robots;
  }
}