How To Remove NoIndex Tag in WordPress

How To Remove NoIndex Tag in WordPress

We all want our website to show up higher in search results. And get found more easily online, as well as drive valuable traffic to our site, right? Well, one of the key factors that determines how well search engines like Google can “find” a website is whether or not they can properly index all of the site’s pages. 

Indexing is the process by which search engines discover, crawl, and catalog the content on your website. This way it can be included in their search results. But sometimes, things like a NoIndex tag can get in the way and stop search engines from fully indexing the site.

In this post, we’ll walk through a few different methods you can use to properly remove NoIndex tags in WordPress. And even get your website fully indexed by search engines. Let’s dive right in! 

How To Remove NoIndex Tag in WordPress

A NoIndex tag is a special HTML tag that tells search engines not to include a page in their search results or crawl it at all. 

This tag can be useful in certain situations. Like, if you have pages that are still in development and not ready to be seen publicly yet. It’s also helpful for things like privacy policies or contact pages that you don’t necessarily want ranking highly on their own. However, if this tag is left on important pages throughout your entire website, it can seriously hinder how well search engines can discover all of your content and include it in their search results.

Proper indexing is key for search engine visibility and optimization. So if you’ve noticed your site’s pages not ranking as well as you’d like or just want search engines like Google to find more of what you have to offer, it’s important to remove any NoIndex tags that may be blocking full indexing. 

Let’s dive into the different ways you can remove NoIndex tags in WordPress!

Using WordPress Dashboard Settings

Using WordPress Dashboard Settings

The WordPress dashboard settings provide an easy way to remove the NoIndex tag on your site and improve search engine visibility. By default, WordPress may add a “noindex” tag to discourage search engines from indexing certain pages like archives and categories. 

To remove this tag through the dashboard settings:

  1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard and go to Settings > Reading.
  1. Under Search Engine Visibility, select the option Allow search engines to index this site and save the changes. 

This will remove the NoIndex tag that was previously added by WordPress. And allow search engines like Google to properly index your site pages for search results.

Using an SEO Plugin

Using an SEO Plugin

Many popular SEO plugins like Yoast SEO allow you to remove the NoIndex tag with just a few clicks. Here are the basic steps using Yoast to remove the tag:

  1. Install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin if not already. 
  1. Go to the Yoast SEO menu and select Advanced
  1. Under Search Appearance, select None from the dropdown next to the “robots meta” tag and hit the save changes button. 

Yoast makes removing the NoIndex tag very intuitive. By switching to None it will remove any previous NoIndex meta tags that were set and allow full search engine indexing of your site.

Manually via Code

Manually via Code

If you aren’t comfortable with the methods above, you can also remove the NoIndex tag manually by editing your theme’s code files.

Here are the basic steps: 

  1. Locate the header.php file in your theme folder. 
  1. Search for the meta tag robots content= noindex
  1. Remove or comment out the meta name robots content line. 
  1. Save changes and test your site. You should no longer see the NoIndex tag on a URL inspection or in the search console.

Manually removing it via code works but isn’t as user-friendly. Using the dashboard settings or an SEO plugin like Yoast is generally a better option to remove the tag with ease.

Removing the NoIndex tag through any of these methods will allow search engines to fully index your site and improve visibility. 

With search engine indexing being so important for boosting a website’s visibility and overall SEO, it’s crucial to ensure nothing is blocking crawlers from properly discovering all of your content. By removing any unnecessary NoIndex tags through one of the methods outlined here, you are allowing search engines like Google to fully index your site.

With the removal of these tags, engines can start including your pages in their search results organically. Over time, this improved indexing and discovery of your website should help more of your pages rank. Both for targeted keywords and to drive increased traffic from searches. Just be sure not to remove NoIndex tags from privacy pages! Or sites still under development that truly aren’t meant for indexing. 

If WordPress is your game, you’ll be happy to hear we have a bunch of other informative posts on WordPress as well! Here are a few posts you might be interested in: 

For more expert blogging tips and tricks, check out the InfluencerSEO blog and services. We have tons more info on blogging topics like monetization, SEO, social media, writing, and so much more. It’s a must-have resource for every aspiring career blogger!

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