Preventing Your Site from Showing in Search Engines During Development

Theoretical Framework

While developing a WordPress site, it’s often crucial to ensure that it doesn’t appear in search engine results like Google, Bing, or Yahoo. This is particularly important during the development phase, where the content might be incomplete or under testing. This process involves using some settings and tools available in WordPress to prevent search engines from indexing your site.

Detailed Explanation

To ensure that your WordPress site does not appear in search engines during development, you can use the “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” feature. This option is readily available in the WordPress backoffice and is easy to activate. Moreover, it’s important to understand that this is a temporary measure, and once your site is ready to launch, you should revert this setting to allow indexing.

Step by Step

1 – Access the WordPress Dashboard: Log into your WordPress site’s backoffice.

2- Navigate to Settings: In the sidebar menu, click on ‘Settings’ and then ‘Reading’.

3 – Activate the Discouragement Option: In the search engine visibility section, check the box next to “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”.

4 – Save Changes: Click on ‘Save Changes’ to apply the setting.

Related Technical Tips

1 – Use a robots.txt File: Besides the WordPress setting, create or modify a robots.txt file in the root directory of your site to discourage indexing.

2 – Consider Staging Environments: Use staging environments for developing and testing your site. These environments are typically configured not to be indexed.

3 – Revert Settings After Launch: Remember to deactivate the discouragement option and check the robots.txt file when your site is ready to go live.

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