If my site is set to private, can search engines index it?
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Do search engines index private sites?
I just migrated my wordpress.com site to self-hosting do not want to pay for redirect because it is so new I have no subscribers yet. I changed it to private hoping it would no longer be accessible to the public because I do not want to delete it and free up that domain for anyone else. My question remains: can it be indexed? In other words, if someone is searching for KikiUnhinged or related searches, is it possible they may still come across this domain?
Thanks.The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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That is NOT a free hosted WordPress.COM blog and we do not provide support for it here. You are posting to the wrong support forum. WordPress.com and WordPress.org are completely separate, have different log-ins and run different versions of themes with same names. http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
We provide support only for free hosted WordPress.COM blogs and not for WordPress.org software installs. If you don’t have a username account at WordPress.ORG click http://wordpress.org/support/ and register one on the top right hand corner of the page that opens, so you can post to the support forums there and receive advice from WordPress.ORG bloggers.
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Deleting a name will not free it up for another blogger, once a site is deleted it is gone forever and will not be recycled
search engines will not index a Private site – But – since the site was probably indexed it will stay indexed for a while – but if you had the custom domain name and domain mapping early on the the indexing will be to the custom domain name and traffic will go to the custom domain name (your new site)
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When you fail to purchase site redirect, in essence, you shoot yourself in both feet because every indexed URL to the original .wordpress.com content will produce a 404 page not found.
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Thank you auxclass. I appreciate you giving me the benefit of the doubt as it should’ve been obvious I was referring to my kikiunhinged.wordpress.com account. The switch from free to self-hosted has been confusing in regards to the WordPress.com “control panel.” I had initially registered my custom domain with GoDaddy and redirected it to my wordpress.com blog.
Thanks again for your answer. It was exactly what I needed to know. -
Thanks time thief. I’m not sure that there would enough indexed URLs to justify the cost given I haven’t had time to do anything with this blog. Unless there’s something I’m missing…?
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Since the old domain name kikiunhinged.wordpress.com/ was indexed for several years by search engines all search engine traffic will stop dead without the site redirect – the site redirect also helps to train search engines a bit quicker – else it will probably take 2 or 3 months for search engines to figure things out – and that is if you Post regularly so they are told of your new address
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You now have duplicated content across two domains:
http://www.kikiunhinged.com/
and http://kikiunhinged. wordpress.com/
See here for how Google views that scenario > https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359?hl=en -
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Thanks time thief. That’s what I’m trying to figure out. How do get rid of that duplication. Should I delete my original WP.com blog? Meanwhile, I’ll read your link.
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I would purchase a site redirect.
If you aren’t going to do that then the WordPress.com blog private and know time a ink to the original content wherever it is on the internet is clicked those who click it will get the private blog notice and will not be able to access the posts. -
The site redirect will help teach search engines ( and other visitors ) your new address – purchase it for one year and DON’T DELETE THE BLOG, ( if you delete the blog you can’t purchase the site redirect ) – at the end of the year just leave the blog private – no charge for dormant blogs
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Thank you both. Just curious, why is it so bad to delete the blog? Wouldn’t that get rid of everything causing me the headaches in the first place?
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Search engines then run into a wall – indexed content is not replaced at once – takes a while for the old search engines to clear and update their caches – deleting a site takes all your options away.
If you don’t want the site redirect – you can set all the Posts and pages back to draft and leave a note that you have moved – that will still have the duplicated content that takes a while to clear and re-index
Me personally? I would keep the blog alive and buy the site redirect for one year at $ 13.- – – make sure you turn off the auto-renew on the site redirect
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Oh, makes sense.
Do you know what the option “empty the site of all its content” does? I’m guessing, same as delete where indexed pages hit the 404 wall?
When one goes to delete their site WP gives a list of other options but doesn’t appear to explain the ramifications of any of them unfortunately. -
IMPORTANT NOTE: Deleting blog content does not remove it from the SERPs (search engine page results). Google and Bing only clear their caches of deleted indexed content that produces a 404 (page not found) every 3 – 6 months.
Know deleting the content changes nothing at all except that you no longer have a backup, which you will have by making the .wordpress.com blog private.
To change blog visibility go to > Settings > Reading. See the guide here http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/privacy-settings/option 1
You can quickly remove your contents by deleting them in bulk.
bulk delete images & media http://en.support.wordpress.com/media/deleting-files/#bulk-deletion
bulk delete posts > http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/edit-posts-screen/#bulk-edit
bulk delete pages > http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/edit-pages-screen/#bulk-edit
Here’s how to permanently delete Trash >
http://en.support.wordpress.com/trash/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/trash/#deleting-permanentlyoption 2
If you have tonnes of content Staff can empty the whole blog for you. That will remove all data including posts, pages, tags, categories, comments, and uploaded files and once deleted, the data cannot be recovered.If you are sure you want Staff to proceed, then type modlook into the tags in the sidebar for Staff attention and post again to this thread to:
(1) confirm the URL of the blog you want them to empty;
(2) confirm that you know content deletion is irreversible. -
Thanks. You both have been great. Much appreciated.
I will do as you suggested and redirect for one year.
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