Why is a hidden blog visible?

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  thelastcollaborator · Member · Feb 10, 2013 at 11:22 am

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  One of my hidden blogs is visible to search engines even though everything is set on private settings.

  thegreattransitiontothegreenpath.wordpress.com

  I don’t intend to use it soon, started with it but changed my mind. How do I make it invisible?

  I just deleted the first two posts.

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  mikedariano · Member · Feb 10, 2013 at 1:22 pm

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  I would double check my privacy settings through these instructions – http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/privacy-settings/.
  If that doesn’t work keep an eye on the forum. Sometimes if this is affecting other users the team will make an upgrade that fixes everyone at once. Best of luck.

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  absurdoldbird · Member · Feb 10, 2013 at 3:20 pm

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  @thelastcollaborator – it appears private to me. Please try clearing your cache and then log back in to your account again. Most likely what you are seeing is your blog as it is stored in your browser’s cache.

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  absurdoldbird · Member · Feb 10, 2013 at 3:23 pm

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  PS. My apologies, I missed what you said about search engines and just had a look. Yes, some parts are showing, but not much. Most likely what happened was you had the blog set to public for just a few posts before you made it private and Google bots trawled it just before you set it to private. If that doesn’t sound likely to you, please let us know.

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  thelastcollaborator · Member · Feb 10, 2013 at 6:15 pm

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  Thanks so much. It was the settings/reading/search engines… instructions found at
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/privacy-settings/
  that MikeDariano suggested… that fixed it!

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  timethief · Member · Feb 10, 2013 at 6:25 pm

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  @thelastcollaborator
  What absurdoldbird posted above is important to note. Neither changing a blog to private nor deleting indexed blog content removes any indexed content 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. What’s been indexed in the blog prior to becoming “private” will remain in the SERPs.

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  thelastcollaborator · Member · Feb 10, 2013 at 7:04 pm

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  Ouch… Thanks again… some lessons we learn the hard way. It’s not private info, its just that I ended up using a different blog under my main branding instead of secondary… which will now take a while to fall off the SERPS…

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  timethief · Member · Feb 10, 2013 at 7:06 pm

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  I thought you would want to know that. You’re welcome.