How to Remove Noindex Tag in WordPress – In digital marketing and SEO, search engine visibility plays a crucial role in the success of your website. One of the challenges webmasters often face is the accidental placement of a “noindex” tag on valuable pages. This tag tells search engines not to index a page, which is sometimes the opposite of what site owners want. In this article, I will guide you on effectively removing the noindex tag in WordPress.
Table of contents
What is Noindex Tag
Before jumping into the removal process, it’s crucial to understand the noindex tag and how it affects your website.
What is the Noindex Tag?
The noindex tag is a meta tag used in HTML code to prevent search engines from indexing a specific webpage. When a page is marked with noindex, it won’t appear in search engine results.
Why Use Noindex?
Commonly used to prevent indexing of pages that are low-value, duplicate, or potentially harmful to your SEO efforts, such as private pages, admin pages, or specific posts.
Identifying Pages with the Noindex Tag
Check Your WordPress Settings
Sometimes, configuration issues within WordPress settings can inadvertently lead to unintentionally marking pages with noindex.
General Settings:
- Go to the WordPress admin dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Reading.
- Ensure the “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” checkbox unchecked.
Plugin Settings:
SEO plugins like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO Pack can set noindex tags. Check their settings:
- Go to the plugin’s settings page in the WordPress dashboard.
- Review each content type (posts, pages, categories, tags) to ensure they set to index.
Inspect the Page Directly
Use your browser’s “View Source” option to search for the noindex tag within the HTML code.
Removing the Noindex Tag
From WordPress Core
Editing Through the Template:
- Navigate to Appearance > Theme Editor.
- Search your header.php file for noindex directives. If present and intentional, remove them carefully.
- It’s advisable to back up your theme files before making changes here.
Via SEO Plugins
Yoast SEO:
- Navigate to the individual post or page you wish to edit.
- Scroll down to the Yoast SEO meta box.
- Under the Advanced tab, ensure “Allow search engines to show this Page in search results?” is set to “Yes.”
All-in-One SEO Pack:
- For a post or page, scroll to the AIOSEO Settings section.
- Ensure that “No Index” is not active.
Robots.txt Considerations
Robots.txt File:
- Located in your domain’s root directory, check for lines with Disallow directives and ensure noindex isn’t imposed indirectly.
- Access via Dashboard > SEO > Tools in Yoast SEO to edit robots.txt.
Testing and Verifying Removal
- Use the URL Inspection Tool to ensure Googlebot now retrieves the page.
- Submit the page for indexing again if necessary.
Incognito Search:
- Perform a Google search in incognito mode to ensure your page appears in the search results.
Conclusion
Removing the noindex tag from your WordPress post or pages is very important to maintain and improve your site’s SEO and visibility. By auditing your WordPress settings, utilizing SEO plugins, and inspecting your template files, you can efficiently manage the visibility of your website content.
Always back up your entire site before making changes, ensuring any accidental losses can be recovered easily. These steps will enhance your overall SEO strategy, driving more traffic to your valuable content.
