New WordPress Blog Privacy Settings

Posted by Jeff

on August 29, 2009

If you are new to WordPress or have recently setup a new WordPress blog you should check the privacy settings to make sure it’s visible. While doing a manual WordPress version 2.8.4 install recently I noticed a change in the default privacy setting.

The privacy setting currently has only has two options, one is to allow the blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers. The other option is to block search engines, but allow normal visitors. When manually installing a new WordPress blog the privacy option is shown on the install page but is now set to block search engines by default. Choosing the correct option, which for most would be to allow the blog to be visible, can still be done when doing a manual install.

If you will be doing, or recently installed WordPress within your hosting account using Fantastico or Simple Scripts you may not have been presented with the option to choose the blogs visibility. If this is the case it may be set to the current default to block the search engines. In any case it doesn’t hurt to check your WordPress blogs privacy settings. Simply go to Settings, Privacy and choose the correct option for your WordPress blog.

Sometimes one simple little thing can make a big difference. In this case there may be an unknown number of new WordPress bloggers out there not knowing their blog is hidden from the search engines. And then there are some aware that it is not getting crawled by the search engine bots but don’t know to change one little setting. I can’t believe the WordPress team will let this go for very long and will soon change the default setting back, I hope.

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Comments

Comment by Tile Cleaning Kansas City on August 30, 2009 @ 4:15 pm

Very informative. I would hate to be spending tons of time working on my blog to discover down the road that it’s not even being crawled by search engines. Unless you’re using it for private company communication, what’s the point?

Comment by Kenali Dan Kunjungi Objek Wisata Di Pandeglang on August 30, 2009 @ 4:39 pm

Yes…this info is vital for the new blogger that use the self hosting WordPress when they seeting up the blog.

Thanks for share

Nice Regards

Comment by Forex Robots on August 31, 2009 @ 12:38 am

You are absolutely correct about the fact that changing one option could completely effect the results your website receives. I personally think this option should be disabled from wordpress.

Comment by DQ on August 31, 2009 @ 5:50 am

I’ve been using WordPress for a while, I’ve used many versions of WordPress, I’ve always found the default setting to be visible to search engines.
I think it should not block search engines by default, this small setting could upset newbies who would be just wondering why in the heck, Google not indexing their site…

Comment by Gabriel on August 31, 2009 @ 10:02 am

I find your post very informative. Many webmasters are using wordpress than any other blogs. Also, I find the post for the blogger very difficult to index.

Comment by Klaus @ TechPatio on August 31, 2009 @ 3:05 pm

Quite an important setting to miss out on, I wonder why they even have it set to “block search engines”, not that many people would want that if they knew what it meant, I’m sure.

Comment by Wine Clubs on August 31, 2009 @ 3:22 pm

Thanks for the info. Can’t imagine having a blog that isn’t visible to Google, seems to defeat the purpose quite a bit!

Comment by Marq | UPrinting.com on September 1, 2009 @ 6:18 pm

It’s really frustrating when you realize that your blogs isn’t even being crawled by search engines. The default setting should be that blogs are visible to search engines. Otherwise, new bloggers won’t know that their blogs cannot be seen.

Comment by Pawel on September 2, 2009 @ 6:47 am

I update my WordPress not very often. But after reading the last articles of your blog I surely makes sense to upgrade. Thanks for those information.

Comment by piilolinssit on September 2, 2009 @ 11:28 am

Yeah, whats the point having a blog if nobody finds there?

Comment by Jonathan@Local marketing on September 2, 2009 @ 8:35 pm

Thanks for the tip, it would be kinda bad to go to all the trouble to create our WordPress blog and not have anyone be able to find it.

Comment by Webshop system on September 3, 2009 @ 5:24 am

Thanks for your useful tips. New bloggers will find it very useful. If google doesn’t crawl due to settings then what’s the use of creating blogs nice tips man.

Comment by Scissor on September 3, 2009 @ 8:48 am

The default setting should be that blogs are visible to search engines. Otherwise, new bloggers won’t know that their blogs cannot be seen.

Comment by Webmarketing Blog on September 3, 2009 @ 9:15 am

I dont know why to create a blog and don’t show it to evereyone. If someone wants privacy he can send an email!

Comment by steppinout on September 3, 2009 @ 11:16 pm

Yup. You got it right. The latest 2.8.4 wordpress installation does that. New wordpress users should aware of this.

Comment by Mark on September 4, 2009 @ 1:12 am

Thanks for your useful tips. Im also having trouble understanding the concept of creating a blog and not having it seen. Great post

Comment by CarltonsEnt on September 4, 2009 @ 3:25 am

Thanks for the info. I’ve just started learning wordpress (should have years ago) mainly for the SEO, SEM and scalability benefits. Thankfully I did a manual install. I most likely would not have caught this using Fantastico and that would have been a real bummer.

Comment by create polls on September 4, 2009 @ 11:43 am

Thank you for the heads up, the privacy settings are very important towards a successful blog.

Comment by jaysen mel on September 4, 2009 @ 2:36 pm

Thanks for the tip.

I just noticed the setting now.

Wonder why its preset like that

Comment by Marius on September 6, 2009 @ 2:02 pm

Great information. For some, this new feature would be helpful, but for others, this wouldn’t be a brilliant option for WP users. All depend on the site owners needs.

Comment by Video Tutorials on September 6, 2009 @ 4:37 pm

That is a great post
because if anyone didnot read it he will have his blog away from search engines forever

Comment by Design Ideas on September 6, 2009 @ 4:39 pm

I made a new wordpress site
and i checked my privacy settings and i found it allowing visibility , i think my partner made it

Comment by Amin Ramjee on September 7, 2009 @ 5:05 am

WordPress version 2.8.4 is great. Thank you very much for your impotent informations.

Comment by Webshop system on September 7, 2009 @ 5:27 am

Thanks jeff for providing this information. I checked my settings after your words but luckily it did not block search engines. Thanks man. Hope it will be really useful for those who had recently installed wordpress.

Comment by Fernstudium on September 7, 2009 @ 1:59 pm

I do setup a new Blog from time to time and I learned about it recently the hard way, too. Wish I’d seen your guide before…

Comment by Sub Zero Repair NYC on September 8, 2009 @ 2:25 pm

changing your security options is just as important as immediately changing your permalink options when you first install wordpress. I’d hope that it was a no-brainer by now.

Comment by Jess on September 10, 2009 @ 12:42 pm

This one just nailed me. I did a brand new install of WP on a new site and didn’t realize the default option had changed. Installed the Google XML Sitemaps plugin and was indexed — as just a URL because of privacy settings!

It has been four days since I corrected the privacy setting and it is still not being crawled.

Is there anything I can do at this point to prompt the search engines to take another look at my now unprotected site?

Jeff Replied:
September 10th, 2009 at 2:29 pm

get a Google webmaster account and submit it there. But just getting your new sites link on another site that is crawled regularly should help too.

Comment by RWH on September 10, 2009 @ 5:50 pm

Great reminder there! Yeah, a small mistake can cost huge. I can’t even imagine not being indexed by search engines… Also, I agree with Jeff, don’t just rely on the google xml sitemap plugin, you could easily set up google webmaster account and submit it through there.

Comment by Irfan on September 14, 2009 @ 7:07 am

I have experienced this personally on my site. Took me ages to figure out why my website as not appearing in search engines.
Good pointer post for newbies to remember

Comment by Jess on September 14, 2009 @ 2:44 pm

Thanks to you both for the tips.

I registered the site with webmaster and manually submitted a sitemap. I also increased my crawl rate and had my site linked from another site that is being crawled. It was nice to see my google alert show up – too bad it was from another site and not my own! But hopefully it will be a shorter waiting game now.

Comment by graduate admission essay on September 16, 2009 @ 12:04 pm

The default should be the search engine visibility status of the blog. I encountered a problem with my WordPress account. I did not check the privacy settings. It was much later that I realized my blog is invisible to search engines.

Comment by Udegbunam Chukwudi on September 16, 2009 @ 1:14 pm

If I’m not wrong I think this wordpress blog privacy setting is what is included in the wordpress virtual robots.txt file. Having a physical robots.txt would most definitely override the blog privacy settings. Please correct me if I’m wrong

Comment by Houston Heights Homes on September 24, 2009 @ 11:36 pm

Choosing the correct option is vital, isn’t it? I think there are many newbies who failed to change the settings. When I started a WordPress blog, it was still several days before I realized that there’s an option to make my blog visible or invisible to search engine crawlers.

Comment by Karma Wins on September 25, 2009 @ 7:27 am

Thank you! You saved my day.. trying to get my blog indexed, and there it was: Privacy setting was set (by Fantastico) to block search engines!

Comment by Online Electronic store on September 30, 2009 @ 7:40 am

It was nice to see my google alert show up – too bad it was from another site and not my own! But hopefully it will be a shorter waiting game now.

Comment by Canada Immigration Guide 2010 on October 8, 2009 @ 8:42 am

when i started my blog on wordpress and its not indexed by bots as i found i have not made visible in my setting, i found this after 2 months later,so every one if you trying to start an blog just learn the setting which have been there for maintaining an blog…

Comment by bank icons on October 31, 2009 @ 4:54 am

I am also having the same problem , my site also was not indexed by google.

Comment by The Right Report on November 10, 2009 @ 7:07 am

I haven’t installed a wordpress blog in 18 months, so when I installed one recently I never even knew about this privacy issue. I think it’s absurd! Why make your blog invisible as default? Who knows…maybe they have a reason – just glad I spotted it in time

Comment by John Article Writer on November 18, 2009 @ 12:06 pm

I have a total of about 12 blogs, of which 3 are hidden from search engines, they are totally for my family purposes i even put privacy option for each post we made.
But am not sure how tight the security is , its probably a boon some people who wants only their liked persons see the posts.

Comment by Paik on November 19, 2009 @ 9:38 am

thanks for tips, I also use wordpress but how can that bots are not see with the site privacy settings are locked?

Comment by Margarita Maker on December 9, 2009 @ 8:41 pm

I got caught with my pants down. The default setting caught me off-guard. I wondered why the blog was not getting indexed. Finally I found the privacy setting to no-index. This is a cruel joke from WordPress.

It pays to look closely at your WordPress settings. You should understand what they mean.

Anyway thanks for explaining and pointing out this critical piece. I think the default should be to have no privacy. Of all the blogs, there is such a small percent that does not want search traffic.

Comment by Krabi on May 20, 2010 @ 8:55 am

I do know about this privacy issue before and I was so worried about my blogs index. My friend forward this link to me.
Thanks for explanation regarding this privacy setting of wordpress blog.

Comment by basil matthews on August 28, 2010 @ 9:54 pm

Hi, i accidentally left mine on block search engines (used to come installed as allow them but this new 3.01 or whatever changed that). Anyway, after a while i noticed it wasnt indexed so i checked it out and realised the problem. I have now changed it but it still won’t get found by google. It usually takes me a day or 2 to get indexed using a few pings and a program called ibp, in fact a blog i built after installing 2.96 yesterday is indexed, just not the new ones using 3.01. Could there be a problem with 3.01 that causes Google not to find them so well?

Comment by free mahjong on September 11, 2010 @ 8:59 am

Thanks for these tips and settings options!

I believe the best way to keep your blog hacker free is using best hosting service and always updating your wordpress version!

Comment by Curtis on September 23, 2010 @ 3:20 am

This is crazy!! I started a blog in wordpress a few weeks ago and did not know that the privacy settings were set to block by default… I have literally been trying everything in the book to get the search engines to crawl it…. Found the privacy settings by change just a little while ago.. What allows this to go further is that nowhere on the internet does it give any timeframe for how long you should wait to see your blog show up in searches before something is wrong…. some suggest it can take several days to a month or more. So i thought it was reasonable that it had not showed up yet. And the whole time it could not have been crawled!!

Comment by Curtis on September 23, 2010 @ 3:22 am

Now I am wondering – having just fixed my privacy settings… how long will it take for the search engines to pick up on it.. or should I resubmit my URL to each search engine service?

Comment by Compare payday loan on November 17, 2010 @ 8:27 am

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