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Google’s John Mueller answered a question astir a WordPress tract that was wholly deindexed from Google Search aft changing to a antithetic web hosting platform. Mueller’s reply shows wherever to commencement investigating the reasons wherefore that happens.
Dropped From Index After A Site Migration
A submitted question to the Google Office Hours podcast related that their tract disappeared from the hunt motor results pages aft they had migrated their tract from WordPress to “self-publishing” and that the tract was subsequently deindexed.
The question whitethorn mean that they were hosting the tract connected the WordPress.com managed WordPress level and past migrated their tract distant to different web host, typically referred to arsenic self-hosting.
Migrating a WordPress tract to different web big takes a fewer comparatively elemental steps but it tin spell incorrect astatine virtually each measurement of the process.
More connected migrating a WordPress tract aboriginal due to the fact that it’s applicable to the question.
John Mueller Answers The Question
Mueller answered the question from the constituent of presumption of analyzing the website itself, which is the champion spot to commencement successful this circumstantial case. The crushed is due to the fact that the question implies that the tract tin inactive beryllium reached online.
This is the question:
“After the tract was transferred from WordPress to self-publishing, astir each publications disappeared from the index. The hunt results are ‘0’.”
John Mueller responded:
“If your website dropped retired of the hunt results and is nary longer being indexed astatine all, close astir the clip erstwhile you did a migration, past my conjecture is that your caller website is someway blocking hunt engines, oregon astatine least, blocking Google. I’d commencement by analyzing the information successful the Search Console, and moving guardant from there.”
Search console whitethorn amusement the nonstop day that pages started dropping retired of Google’s scale and the crushed wherefore they’re dropping out. Typical reasons whitethorn beryllium the pages are not recovered (404) oregon that Google was blocked from crawling by a robots.txt. Those are the starting points for identifying what’s happening connected Google’s side.
Diagnose If WordPress Is Blocking Google
This benignant of occupation typically happens erstwhile a WordPress tract is acceptable to beryllium hidden from the hunt engines, which means there’s a robots.txt introduction that’s blocking hunt engines from indexing the site.
Google Search Console volition archer you erstwhile this is happening done the Page Indexing Report which volition amusement that the tract is blocked by a robots.txt successful the file of the study labeled “Why pages aren’t indexed”.
If that’s the lawsuit past you tin really spot this to beryllium the lawsuit successful your robots.txt record typically located successful the basal of your domain, /robots.txt (example.com/robots.txt).
If the leafage is blocked by Robots.txt past it whitethorn beryllium that a WordPress mounting was applied astatine immoderate constituent successful the migration to artifact hunt indexing.
This is simply a mounting that’s autochthonal to the WordPress admin sheet that tin beryllium reached here:
Settings 🡪 Reading.There you’ll find a mounting called “Search Engine Visibility” with a checkbox labeled Discourage hunt engines from indexing this site.
Screenshot Of WordPress Visibility Setting
WordPress hunt visibility settings
If that’s the lawsuit past untick that container and you’re done.
If there’s a robots.txt introduction that’s blocking hunt engines but the supra container isn’t checked past it could beryllium different plugin doing that, similar an SEO oregon migration plugin. If that’s not the lawsuit past possibly whoever was helping bash the determination inserted that introduction successful which lawsuit it’s an casual happening to download the robots.txt, edit the record successful a substance record exertion past uploading it back.
Other issues could beryllium a nonaccomplishment to update DNS settings to constituent to the caller web hosting work oregon it could beryllium thing connected the web big side. Starting the probe astatine Google Search Console is bully advice.
Listen to Google’s reply present astatine the 7:24 infinitesimal mark:
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Roman Samborskyi
English (US)