Do you want to prevent search engines from indexing a WordPress site and pages?
See your Website indexed by Google is usually a good thing. But sometimes it's not as good as it would be.
When Google starts indexing pages on your Website that you don't want to see in search results is annoying instead of good.
If you also feel upset because of the same problem? Do not worry.
In this article, we are going to explore how to stop not just Google but all search engines from indexing WordPress sites or specific pages of sites.
Table of contents ☰
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I disable a search indexer?
You can't disable a search crawler, but you can certainly convey your preference to search engines regarding which pages you want to index and which don't. You can do this using tags no-index .
What does disabling search indexing do?
Disabling – or requesting non-inclusion (to be more precise) – of certain pages in Google's search index means that those pages cannot be found in search results.
Therefore, users will not arrive on these pages from the search results of a query.
What You'll Need To Stop Search Engines From Indexing WordPress
Depending on the method you choose for this task, you will need the following three things in order to prevent search engines from indexing your WordPress site or specific pages:
- Access to your WordPress dashboard
- Yoast SEO Plugin
- Password protection plugin.
Each of these things should be used for a different type of method, as you will see.
How to Stop Search Engines from Indexing a WordPress Site or Pages: Step-by-Step Instructions
Method 1: Disable Search Engine Indexing for WordPress
WordPress itself also comes with a setting you can use to tell search engines that you don't want your Website be indexed. Simply follow the steps below to enable it:
Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
Access playback settings by going to Settings -> Playback in the dashboard.
Check the box “Dissuade search engines from indexing this site” .
Push the button " Save Changes " .
This adds a “noindex” tag in the header of your website, suggesting to search engine crawlers that you do not want your website to be indexed. However, as indicated below the checkbox, it is up to the search engines to decide whether or not to honor this request!
This does not guarantee that your website will be excluded from search results.
Method 2: Ask search engines not to crawl individual pages/posts
If you want to prevent certain pages of your website from appearing in Google search instead of the whole site, you will need to insert the same “noindex” tag that WordPress inserts sitewide for the pages you want only .
Here's how to do it using the plugin Yoast SEO, one of the most common SEO tools for WordPress:
Go to Extensions -> Add to add a new plugin in your WordPress dashboard.
Search « Yoast SEO« . Once you get the results, install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin on your site.
Now open the page or post you don't want indexed in the WordPress editor and scroll down to the Yoast SEO meta box.
Once there, navigate to the tab « Advanced ".
Under the option “Allow search engines to display the contents Page in search results? » select " No In the drop-down menu.
Finally, update the post/page.
If you're creating a new page that you don't want indexed, you can apply the same setting when creating the page itself.
Method 3: Password protecting the entire website
Out of sight, out of mind – this principle also applies to search engine bots. If they can't see the contents of your web pages, they will obviously have nothing to index on it. Here's how to do it:
Access to Extensions -> Add In your WordPress dashboard.
Search « Password Protected« in the search bar.
Install and activate this plugin.
Access to Settings -> Password Protected and check the box » Password Protected Status » to enable password protection.
You can also choose whether you want only administrators to be able to log in and view the site or other logged in users as well.
Below you can create your password which will be used to access the site. Once you have entered your password in both boxes, click the button « Save Changes« .
That's it — your entire site is now password protected, and therefore invisible to crawlers and search engine crawlers. If they are unable to crawl your site, they obviously won't be able to index it either.
Bonus tip: never use a robots.txt file to hide pages from search engines. This is an outdated technique that no longer works.
Using this file may still be part of best practice SEO for some purposes, but it's certainly not to prevent your web pages from being indexed.
Read more resources :
- SEO Parasite: Complete Guide for Beginners
- What is Cloaking in SEO: Simple Guide for Beginners
- Semantic SEO: Beginner's Guide to Ranking Higher
- What is SEO? The Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization
- Link Building Strategy for Niche Sites: The Ultimate Guide
- Link Building Awareness: A Simple Beginner’s Guide
- Competitor Keyword Analysis: Complete Beginner’s Guide
- What is timeless content? Beginner's guide with practical tips
Conclusion
So here is our brief guide on how to prevent search engines from indexing your WordPress site or specific pages within it. We have shared three methods, each applicable to different types of circumstances.
We hope that one of them will also be useful for your needs.
If you think this guide helped you share it with your friends on social media. Also share your feedback in the comments section as it will help us create contents more useful in the future.
