How to remove ‘noindex’ detected in ‘robots’ meta tag

To remove the ‘noindex’ directive from the ‘robots’ meta tag in a WordPress website, you can follow these steps:

1. Check your SEO plugin settings: If you are using an SEO plugin like Yoast SEO, All in One SEO, or Rank Math, check the plugin settings to ensure that the ‘noindex’ directive is not being added by the plugin. These plugins often have options to control the ‘robots’ meta tag for individual pages or the entire site.

For example, in Yoast SEO:

a. Go to your WordPress dashboard, click on ‘SEO’ in the sidebar, and then select ‘Search Appearance.’ b. In the ‘Content Types’ tab, find the content type (e.g., Posts or Pages) with the ‘noindex’ directive and set the ‘Show [content type] in search results?’ option to ‘Yes.’
c. If you want to change the setting for an individual page or post, edit the page or post, scroll down to the Yoast SEO meta box, click on the ‘Advanced’ tab, and set the ‘Allow search engines to show this [content type] in search results?’ option to ‘Yes.’

2. Check your theme’s header.php file: Some WordPress themes may add the ‘noindex’ directive in the ‘robots’ meta tag by default. To check and remove it:

a. Go to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to ‘Appearance’ > ‘Theme Editor.’
b. In the ‘Theme Files’ section on the right, find and click on ‘header.php’ to edit it.
c. Locate the ‘robots’ meta tag with the ‘noindex’ directive in the code. It will look like this:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow" />
d. Remove the ‘noindex’ part from the content attribute, so it looks like this:
<meta name="robots" content="follow" />
e. Save the changes by clicking on the ‘Update File’ button.

3. Check the Reading settings: Ensure that the ‘Search Engine Visibility’ option in the WordPress Reading settings is not enabled, as this will add a ‘noindex’ directive to your entire website.

a. Go to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to ‘Settings’ > ‘Reading.’
b. Scroll down to the ‘Search Engine Visibility’ section and make sure the checkbox next to ‘Discourage search engines from indexing this site’ is unchecked.
c. Click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

After making these changes, the ‘noindex’ directive should be removed from the ‘robots’ meta tag. Keep in mind that it may take some time for search engines to crawl your site again and update their index. You can also request a re-crawl using Google Search Console to speed up the process.

Conclusion

Removing the ‘noindex’ directive from the ‘robots’ meta tag in WordPress can be achieved by checking and adjusting the settings of your SEO plugin, inspecting your theme’s header.php file, and ensuring that the ‘Search Engine Visibility’ option in the Reading settings is disabled. By following these steps, you can ensure that search engines index your WordPress website correctly, allowing it to appear in search results. Keep in mind that changes might take some time to be reflected in search engine indexes, so be patient and consider requesting a re-crawl through Google Search Console to expedite the process.

FAQ

Published on: 2023-03-31
Updated on: 2023-08-09

Isaac Adams-Hands

Isaac Adams-Hands is the SEO Director at SEO North, a company that provides Search Engine Optimization services. As an SEO Professional, Isaac has considerable expertise in On-page SEO, Off-page SEO, and Technical SEO, which gives him a leg up against the competition.