WordPress Blog Not Indexed by Google
There are several blogs and web sites discussing issues with WordPress sites not getting indexed by Google. I was hoping that the reason my site was not getting indexed would be revealed in this thread: Major Problem solved with WordPress & Google. Unfortunately, it wasn't.
WordPress Privacy Settings
I searched a lot more and finally realized that there was a WordPress setting that handled this. I had set my site to be publicly available in an older version, but somehow, somewhere along the way, it got changed.
My Settings>Privacy settings were set to "I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors". Once I changed the Privacy settings to "I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technochrati) and archivers", and clicked the "Save Changes" button, my site tools indicated that Google had pretty much instantly started indexing the site. Then a simple Google search of my site revealed several posts and content. I wish I could identify when this setting was changed, because I clearly would have remembered changing it, which I did not.
Mission accomplished, at least! I hope this helps someone else out...
-Dan
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Hi Dan,
I have recently started a WordPress blog at the site/directory specified. Initially google indexed two of my posts and then they dropped off again.. any idea what it could be?
At the moment none of my posts are indexed.
A few possible clues:
– I use the robots meta plugin to reduce duplicate content
– I have pretty similar text in my intro to the 4 articles posted… could this be it?
– I have stated my preference for pgcoaching.nl rather than http://www.pgcoaching.nl and use a 301 redirect plugin
Thanks in advance for any light you can shed…
Regards, Patrick
@Manou:
Sounds like the permissions on your web host’s server may be set incorrectly. You might try setting them to 755 temporarily (chmod 755) to see if this is the case.
An assumption is being made here that you are not running on WordPress.com, where functionality is quite limited.
What is the URL of the blog in question?…
I am using Kubrick theme. I can’t install any plugins. And my site doesn’t get indexed in Google search. Any solutions people?
thanks @dan.
Zambia is a beautiful country in Southern Africa.
@ nsikub:
Sounds like you’re on the right track as much as you can be. Hopefully your site gets indexed soon in Google.
I trust that you do know that disallowing other bots may hurt your listings with them. I would just allow all for now.
Where is Zambia located?
-D
@dan thanks.
I tried the purchase process of my domain name and I terminated when I was prompted to go ahead and buy it. So I have followed your advice and notified the sellers about the situation thanks!
I also confirmed with my domain name provider that the domain actually has a ‘whois’ previous history since 2008-03-22. I tried to search for any potential abuse or backlinks from http://www.archive.org/web/web.php but nothing shows up.
Regarding the DNS registration you’re right I know my domain is a fairly new and I am trying my best using Google Webmaster tools to improve things. I have re-submitted the URL to Google and put a comment as suggested. Also re-submitted site maps etc.
Right now, I have just got rid of the WP plugin PC Robots.txt and manually put the robots.txt in my root folder allowing no other bots other than googlebot in the hope that crawling might start.
Again, thanks for the tips couldn’t have reached this far without you.
OK, I did see in your DNS registration record that the domain was registered on 19Dec2009.
Still kind of new, really, but I would also try going to the Add your URL to Google web site to submit it manually for indexing. You might get lucky and receive a reply from them with a reason for not indexing. I would be sure to tell them in the comments field that you haven’t had it for very long and suspect abuse by the previous owner (spam, malware hosting, etc.).
Hope this helps.
-D
@ Nsikub:
I had some difficulty finding the link you are mentioning. Seeing your domain for sale on web hosting, page parking, domain auction, or domain regristrar sites is not uncommon. I have seen this with my other site, CartierConsulting.com many times.
I would try to enter the purchase process for your domain name for whatever site is offering it to see if it really exists. You may find (hopefully) that it is indeed not for sale, and instead be offererd alternates or taken to a WhoIs page to search.
What I have done in my own case is contact the top 5 or so search results offering my domain for sale, inform them that it is not for sale, and ask them to remove my domain from their listings. I think the longest took 3 months to drop off. Regardless, it should drop off eventually.
How long have you had this domain name registered to you?
Google Webmaster Tools is probably your best reference right now, especially if you are indexed in other search engines. You can re-submit your site map through them, and even see what is reported for the contents of your robots.txt, either a real one or a virtual one.
-D
sorry dan sent wrong link (actually if you just type ‘zedcloud.com £99’ in Google you’ll see what I mean. Thanks.
Hi dan actually found this link http://www.dcloud.nl saying zedcloud (£99) will you please advice?
thanks dan for the site comment!(not your fault misspelt my own name – nsikub).
Actually I suspect the domain name might have been abused, but is there anything one could do if it was abused. Do things work out in a such a way that over time perhaps the site could just get indexed by itself?
Will replace the & and use the suggested Plugin.
Thanks for your time.
Hi Nsikun, How long have you had this domain name? Is it possible that someone before you abused it? I did check out the site and it looks good. The site errors look like the & character just needs to be replaced with
&in a few places, however I doubt that’s why you’re not getting indexed.I would suggest putting a robots.txt file in the root of the site and set the contents to:
User-agent: *Allow: /
Alternately, you could install a plugin like PC robots.txt that will create a customizable robots.txt file for you using convenient plugin settings. Note that you don’t want a real robots.txt file in your site if you use an option like this.
Other than that, I don’t have much else right now.
hi dan, I have similar issues (site not indexed in Google) – http://www.zedcloud.com; however it’s been picked up on bing. I have followed a few tips you’ve generously given here, however in the meantime I will appreciate any further tips.
So far I have done the following:
1. reduced my errors from 20 to 5 using | http://validator.w3.org
2. installed the XML-sitemap (both zipped and unzipped).
3. i’ve deliberately not set up the robots.txt to avoid blocking the google-bot.
4. Installed WP plugin ‘Follow URL’ to get rid of ‘rel=no follow’ on my links.
5. registered with Google web tools (blog still not appearing).
6. Yet, another new domain I set up with no traffic is already being indexed in Google (confused).
7. Thanks!
@ashely you said one blogger helped you do you mind sharing the news?
Thanks Phil. Your feedback is appreciated.
-D
Thanks. I have been trying all kinds of things but I had this privacy setting on too. It must be a default because I have never changed it.
so just a quick update on my site status; I can finally see google indexing my site, not sure how (maybe it just took some time that it needs) but here’s what I did after my initial posting here (whether it helped or not you be the judge):
– I continue to create postings on my WP blog (I think google may have initially thought that I am abusing the system as I have a number of links to other sites but they are necessary as I am providing references and information)
– I created another webmaster tool for the site using my other gmail account
– on Yahoo Answers, I started answering people’s questions related to Prague, which is what my blog is about. I included the link in a few of them
– I once again patiently wait for updates…
so now I can see the site is slowly but maturely being indexed in google search. Hope this helps to people who will have similar problems in the future,
Hi,
I am having similar issues with google not indexing my site, http://www.thecitywithin.com
However, I believe that my issue is more complicated than just updating a setting in WP, which I double checked and confirmed it’s set to publicly available.
The full description of the problem is here:
http://www.webmaster-talk.com/the-google-forum/196564-google-does-not-index-my-page-2.html#post984334
I appreciate any thoughts, Thanks
I briefly viewed the discussion you referenced at webmaster-talk.com . Are you still having trouble, or did modifying your robots.txt file or disabling a plugin help? At first glance, your site looks OK to me, low keyword count and Valid HTML, however the DOCTYPE syntax is off: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.thecitywithin.com/ .
One good plugin that I always try to set up is Google XML Sitemaps. This will submit your site, once a day max. to Google when content is changed. I see you are using Michael Torbert’s All in One SEO Pack, also an excellent choice.
I’m not sure how much traffic your site gets, but the Google XML Sitemaps plugin, along with setting up this domain in Google Webmaster Tools, can help immensely. Also, the more sites that link back to yours, the better your ranking can be.
-Dan
@Masdin:
You are welcome. It’s always nice to know when others have found my posts useful.
-Dan