WordPress Sites Not Indexing Correctly
I’ve recently ‘launched’ a few new sites built using WordPress and none of them have fully indexed. The home page is indexed but none of the other posts or meta data is indexed in Google.
Thanks to gary_ap on the A4U forum I have found out that there is a new setting in WordPress that by default is set to ‘I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors’ to view the site.
I have since changed this setting to ‘I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers’ and my robots.txt file has been updated and hopefully my sites will be indexed fully soon.
This setting can be found under:
- Settings
- Privacy
In some respects the default block search engines option is good as it stops your site getting indexed before it’s ready. Unless you alter the settings and install a plugin you run the risk of pinging posts to the search engines each time you make a change, even if the change is a typo!
You might also want to consider using plugins such as all in one seo to noindex category pages which will prevent duplicate content problems.
That is bonkers. Just checked a site of mine (one pager) and this is indeed why the site isn’t indexed.
Personally I want my sites indexed regardless of their state to get the ageing process underway.
Cheers.
It’s not a new setting as it’s been available in wordpress ever since i’ve been using it, it’s just new that it’s turned on by default as oppose to off like it used to be.
Took me a couple of weeks to realise why a new blog of mine wasn’t being indexed – oops!
Great post, Just checked 3 of my new WordPress sites that just wouldnt index, Thought i was going mad they just wouldnt appear on google.
All 3 sites have now have the box unticked. What a stupid idea!!!
Cheers.