Search engines are the major source of traffic for most websites on the internet. Getting de-indexed from Google can take away most of of your traffic. In this article, we will show you why your WordPress site got de-indexed from Google and what you can do to fix it?
Recovering a WordPress Site After Getting De-indexed by Google
There are many reasons that can cause Google to remove a site from its search index. We will go through the most common reasons for websites getting deindexed one by one.
Before we do that, you need to review your site’s content yourself. If a site has content that is illegal and harmful, then Google will not include it in the search results. Make sure that you understand Google’s webmaster guidelines.
Having said that, let’s take a look at some of the reasons that may cause Google to de-index a WordPress site.
Check Search Engine Visibility Settings in WordPress
WordPress comes with an option to hide your site from search engines. The purpose of this option is to allow site-owners to work on their site without getting the search traffic.
It is possible that you, or some other user with administrator level access on your website may have accidentally enabled this option.
Simply login to the admin area of your WordPress website and go to Settings » Reading page. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, there you will find the search engine visibility option.
Make sure that the box next to search engine visibility option is unchecked. If it is checked, then you need to uncheck it and click on the save changes button to store your settings.
Check Your Site with Google Search Console
Google allows webmaster to see how Google sees their websites with Search Console (formerly webmaster tools). If you haven’t already added your WordPress site to Google search console (formerly webmaster tools), then you can do it now.
After logging into your Google search console account, there are three main sections where Google will directly inform you what’s wrong with your site.
Messages: This is where Google directly sends messages about your Google search console account.
Crawl errors: If for some reason Google cannot crawl your website properly, then this is the page those errors will show up.
Security: On this page, Google will show if it detects a security issue with your website.
Check Your Site for Malicious Code
One of the most common reasons that a site could get de-indexed is malware distribution. If a WordPress site gets hacked, the hackers can install a script that can install malicious software on users browsers.
People visiting your website will see a safe browsing warning in browsers like Google Chrome.
Cleaning a hacked WordPress site has multiple steps such as locating the infected files, clean it or replace it.
This is why we use Sucuri on all our website. In 3 months Sucuri helped us block 450,000 WordPress attacks.
For those of you who want to do it on their own, take a look at our beginner’s guide to fixing a hacked WordPress site.
Reaching out to Google
After going through all the steps mentioned above, you can reach out to Google and ask them to reconsider your website for inclusion in their index.
Here is how to request for reinclusion in Google search index.
First make sure that your website follows Google’s webmaster quality guidelines, and you have thoroughly checked your website.
If you are certain that your website is clean and safe, then you can simply submit a reconsideration request.
We hope this article helped you learn why your WordPress site got de-indexed from Google and how you can fix it. You may also want to check out our list of 9 best WordPress SEO plugins and tools that you should use.
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Ria says
My wordpress website got de-indexed by Bing. Bing doesn’t tell about the particular issue. I contacted to the Bing support team, Bing guy told me to follow Bing webmaster guidelines, now I don’t know from where I start, I have checked content, backlinks all these things. Any idea?
Niel sagaert says
Mark, what’s that site you are talking about?
Joel Emmett says
You left out the most obvious reason websites get de-indexed from Google: SEO.
Other than offering frequent quality content on a website, any clear attempt at SEO can get you banned from Google. They’ve repeated that over and over and over and over for more than a decade. Try to trick Google, and they can ban you.
For example, I did a site for an orthodontist who later hired a “SEO specialist” who stuffed 3 keywords per page. The site was banned within the month; I suggested the distraught doctor delete the site and start over, with another designer.
I suppose that your site has so much about SEO tactics that you chose to overlook that fact? Instead, why not focus on what Google is looking for — quality content and high usability — which will not only keep sites from being de-indexed, but help the sites’ visitors as well.
WPBeginner Support says
Thanks for adding this.
Admin
John Kanelis says
I once was approved for ads, but got “deactivated” because I violated the “terms of agreement.” I apologized to Google for the misunderstanding. I got reapproved. I’m still awaiting ads to be placed on my site. What do I have to do to make that a reality?
Mark Dalton says
I had the red sign, stay away from this website treatment from Google just because of one of my links to an external site. That site, a normal one, got blacklisted somehow.
Google was useless at telling me what the problem was from the webmaster dashboard. Eventually I found a site Google has for the public to check websites on, and this gave better details.
Nico says
Hi Mark, Could you tell me the website you mentioned in your comment!