WordPress Technical SEO Cleanup: Google Search Console, Yoast Sitemap & Dead URL Redirects

I need help with a WordPress technical SEO cleanup for a news/blog site. My PageSpeed scores are excellent, but Google Search Console shows many not-indexed URLs. I need someone experienced with WordPress, Yoast SEO, Google Search Console, sitemaps, noindex/canonical settings, and 301 redirects. Current Search Console issue: 649 indexed pages 4,419 not indexed pages 2,358 Discovered — currently not indexed 1,873 Crawled — currently not indexed 182 Excluded by noindex tag Some visitors are also landing on dead/old URLs Scope of work: Review Google Search Console indexing issues and assess not-indexed URLs. Determine whether not-indexed URLs are real blog posts or low-value WordPress URLs like tags, archives, author pages, pagination, or deleted pages. Evaluate Yoast SEO sitemap settings and adjust if needed. Noindex or remove low-value WordPress URLs from search results if appropriate. Ensure real blog posts and important pages are indexable. Check robots.txt, canonical tags, noindex tags, and sitemap structure. Review dead/old URLs receiving visits. Create proper 301 redirects for important old URLs with a relevant replacement page. Do not redirect everything to the homepage. Provide a detailed list of changes made. Important: Please do not change my theme, design, permalink structure, content, categories, article titles, or delete posts without asking me first. Please do not make political/content edits. This is a technical SEO cleanup only. I am not looking for backlinks, ranking guarantees, AI content, or a monthly SEO package. I only need a careful technical SEO cleanup for WordPress, Yoast, Google Search Console indexing, sitemaps, and dead/old URL redirects. Thank you.