DuckDuckGo indexed my website
-
Is there a way or code I can add to my website to prevent certain media I’ve uploaded from being tracked and indexed by search engines like DuckDuckGo, Bing, Yahoo, Google, etc.?
WP.com: Yes
Correct account: YesThe blog I need help with is: (visible only to moderators and staff)
-
Also why can’t forum users delete their forum requests, posts, and questions, even if their forum post was potentially helpful to other users? I’ve had WordPress for years and I’ve never been pleased with it despite some improvements. Please create an option for users to remove their forums.
-
Hello there,
Many thanks for reaching out.
You can deter search engines from reaching certain areas or files, but you would need a plugin in order to do that.
What is the URL you’re working with exactly?
-
Dear aleone89,
Do you recommend a specific plugin? Is there a private messaging service to share my url or an email I can contact? There are a few url’s I’ve emailed staff at duckduckgo about removing from their search results. They redirected me to submitting requests to Bing to stop them from indexing, however I know wordpress is the source because there are a group of wordpress urls. I am hesitant to share any urls on this forum yet.
-
As a moderate wordpress user with novice programming knowledge, my understanding of adding coding with wordpress is that users can add CSS code blocks with certain themes.
-
Hey there,
Is there a private messaging service to share my url or an email I can contact?
Sure! Our paid hosting plans include direct support:
https://wordpress.com/support/help-support-options/Is the site you’re working with hosted here with us?
Users can add CSS if they’re managing their own DIY installation, or if they’re hosting with us on a plan that supports it, however CSS wouldn’t discourage DuckDuckGo. You’d be looking to modify your robots.txt file instead.
If you’re working with a free site here on WordPress.com and would like some content indexed and other content unindexed but not private, can I recommend creating a second free site and setting its visibility accordingly? You could link the two sites through their menus.
Or if it’s okay for the pages and posts to be private, you’ve got several options there:
https://wordpress.com/support/post-and-page-visibility/ -
Dear supernovia,
Thank you for your supporting response. I already privatize some content and publicly publish other content. What happen is I uploaded media file of photos to my wordpress free site and when I allowed search engines to index my content, I had no idea if I could control what content becomes indexed.
Do the public and private buttons control that? I’ve already familiarized myself with the wordpress menus. I registered multiple wordpress domains though I mainly use one. I used to use Bluehost as a host but I dropped it to rely solely on WordPress’s free hosting with limited themes and more. My goal is to have some content DuckDuckGo’s engine indexed from their search results. For example, if I search for my name on their engine, and then go to images, some content from my website appears, which is fine but I want to control what shows and what doesn’t.
Is what you suggested the only options? I am not sure how to control the robot.txt file. I think I found directions on how to change that online a few months ago.
Any response is appreciated. Thank you!
-
Is the site you are referring to hosted here with us on WordPress.com? Or is it a site built with the WordPress software (from WordPress.org) but hosted with another webhost (Bluehost, Knownhost, etc)? You do have a few WordPress.com sites associated with the WordPress.com user account you are posting from, but I also see a Jetpack connected site hosted elsewhere.
We keep asking this because we are very limited in what we can assist with if a site is not hosted on our servers. We cannot see your site or its configuration. WordPress.com and WordPress.org are related, but are separate entities.
If you have a WordPress site hosted elsewhere, you may get better advice posting on the WordPress.org forums:
-
Dear Ozmodiar,
It is hosted through the wordpress.com domain. When I set up my website before, I did use a jetpack plugin but I believe that changed at some point in the last few years. I’ve used wordpress for nearly ten years now.
I don’t believe DuckDuckGo’s staff can help me but I also emailed them, and reached out to them. My main issue is I have two versions of a business-resume-type file I uploaded and one was indexed but I’d prefer the other one was. I’m not sure how that’s controlled. Some digital pictures of art and screenshots from my saved media in WordPress also appears in the search results of their engine. It is from WordPress.com. my is just: tylersorenson.com. but it’s really (email visible only to moderators and staff)
Hope that helps.
-
Hi there,
It’s not possible to set free sites on WordPress.com to use a custom domain, so to properly connect tylersorenson.com you will first need one of the upgrades we list here, all of which include a custom domain connection option: https://wordpress.com/plans/
Note that currently you appear to be using “domain masking” through GoDaddy, which is a way to make your site appear at a custom address, but it is not a proper connection and causes issues such as:
– your site is visible at two different addresses (tylersorenson.com and tylerssorenson0.wordpress.com)
– Search engines are confused by this and can index your site incorrectly.
– some WordPress.com features such as stats cannot operate correctly and will have odd issues.It sounds like part of the problem you are facing may be related to that now, so I recommend upgrading and connecting your domain properly, which will put your site on one address (tylersorenson.com) and make it easier for search engines to see your site correctly.
I don’t believe DuckDuckGo’s staff can help me but I also emailed them, and reached out to them.
In this case I do actually recommend reaching out to them. We do not control what search engines index and show (in search results) on our side, so typically the only way to do this is by contacting them directly.
Hope that helps. Please let us know if you have any more questions.
-
Dear staff-totoro/staffmember#4,
I was unaware of digital domain masking. Masks seem to be everywhere all the time now. The world has changed so much. It never ends. Yes, some other user registered the domain and signed up through GoDaddy a long time ago (like over two years) and gifted it to me fair and square. Not round at all. I already upgraded and then downgraded.
We are paying for the free one too, we are paying for it with our privacy. Otherwise there seems to be a disconnect between us. We don’t see eye to eye. Also, the engine is seeing my site correctly. You posted it yourself: both addresses are visible, and I’m okay with that. That’s not the issue and you have been of service. Users like custom options, thus I set up two url’s.
-
Two URLs sounds like the best option here to me, too. One can remain completely private that way if you’d like.
Let us know if you need more help!
-
Dear supernovia,
Thank you for the help. I already have two free urls through wordpress and I believe staff-totoro answered my question fairly. Aleone89 suggested a plugin for deterring search engines from catching certain results. Which plugin do you reccommend?
Also staff-totoro said my site being available at two different urls would confuse searches. Why is this? Shouldn’t two urls show up in search results?
-
Which plugin do you reccommend?
We can’t make official recommendations. However, I would advise that you always choose plugins that have decent ratings but more importantly that have an active support system in place. You can check the plugin forum to see how responsive that team is to the questions and help that folks need.
You will search here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/
- The topic ‘DuckDuckGo indexed my website’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 