Warning: Wordpress shuns Google by default

Okay, I admit that I to use overly dramatic headlines, but I wanted to grab your attention, especially if you’ve just started using the blogging software Wordpress. And please use Wordpress as it is by far the best blogging platform on the market.

But you see, there’s this little niggly default privacy setting on Wordpress that tells Google and all the other search engines that you’re not interested in being indexed in their search results. What you will see in the source code when you first install Wordpress is a piece of code that looks like this:

<meta name=’robots’content=’noindex,nofollow’/>

This little piece of code is known as a ‘no index’ instruction for search engine ‘robots’ in that it tells search engines to not index your pages in their search results. So Googlebots (also called spiders) show up to index your site and that nasty piece of code tells it you’re just not interested in being part of their search results.

I’ve written about this problem before but I was only suspicious that this was a default setting and I thought it was more likely that I had screwed up (which is usually the case). But I finished the basic install for a new blog I am making for someone as a Christmas present and lo and behold there was that ‘no-index’ instruction.

Here’s the instructions for how to turn this no-index instruction off, it’s really very easy:

1. Go to the admin section of your Wordpress blog

2. Click on the “settings” tab in the top right corner

3. Click on the “privacy” tab in the blue bar

4. You should see a section now called “blog visibility” that looks like this:

(click to enlarge)

5. Make sure that it is set to: “I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers.”

If this doesn’t work (it did for me), then there are some more technical fixes out there, just google something like: “no index code wordpress” and you’ll see lots of great ideas and information.

Seriously, does anyone have any idea why Wordpress would have this as the default setting?

Beware of the Wordpress ‘noindex’

Are the search engines possibly ignoring your Wordpress blog because you’ve unknowingly been plugging ‘no index’ code into every post and page?

Wow, so I was just about to write a post about basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) codes for bloggers when I thought, “Gee I better check the source code on TMOW before I go telling other people what to do.”

And lo and behold, guess what’s pops up? This evilness:

<meta name=’robots’content=’noindex,nofollow’/>

This little piece of code is known as a ‘no index’ instruction for search engine ‘robots’ in that it tells search engines to not index your pages in their search results. So Googlebots (also called spiders) show up to index your site and that nasty piece of code tells it you’re just not interested in being part of their search results.

In other words, potentially millions of adoring fans have been missing out on all the funny youtube videos I’ve been posting lately.

You’ll notice that there is a ‘no follow’ instruction in the code above as well. ‘No follow’ tells search engine robots to not follow any hyperlinks you include in the page. Relative to the ‘no index’ instruction,
the ‘no follow’ is not as big of a deal, but the combination of these two pieces of code and you are totally banishing yourself to internet irrelevance.

As I’ve found out the hard way, the easiest way to screw up and include ‘no index’ code on your Worpress site’s source code is to mess up the privacy settings.

I’ve never changed any of the privacy functions on The Meaning of Web and if I did it was totally by accident and I really deserve a slap upside the head. If I didn’t, then that means that the ‘no index’ code was a default setting either for this theme or for the Wordpress download.

Most likely it was my fault, but I just wanted to put this post up to ensure others aren’t unknowingly doing the same thing. It’s easy to find out if you have ‘no index’ code on your site, just go to the main page of your website, click the ‘view’ tab in your web browser (I’m using Firefox) and click on the ‘page source.’

You’ll get something that looks like this:

An example of page source with no follow text

Click to enlarge and you will see the ‘no index’ ‘ no follow’ code in the third line from the bottom.

If you do see something that looks like this in the source code of your Wordpress site: <META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW”>

or this, <META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX”>, and you don’t want it there, here’s the easiest way to fix it:

1. Go to the admin section of your Wordpress blog

2. Click on the “settings” tab in the top right corner

3. Click on the “privacy” tab in the blue bar

4. You should see a section now called “blog visibility” that looks like this:

5. Make sure that it is set to: “I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers.”

If this doesn’t work (it did for me), then there are some more technical fixes out there, just google something like: “no index code wordpress” and you’ll see lots of great ideas and information.

Would be great to know if anyone else has encountered a similar problem with Wordpress.

UPDATE: Alright, its only been about 5 hours since I turned off the “noindex” and “nofollow” code and its already paying off. Woohoo:

Click to enlarge