Managing Sitemap Visibility in your eDirectory

Introduction

Search engine visibility is crucial for attracting organic traffic to your eDirectory website. By default, platforms like Google automatically crawl and index all publicly accessible pages, making them discoverable to users searching online. However, there might be instances where you wish to exclude specific pages or even your entire website from search engine results. This article provides a step-by-step guide on how to control the indexing of your eDirectory website by search engines directly within your Editor interface. This allows you to strategically manage which parts of your content are included in sitemaps and subsequently considered for search engine indexing.

Steps to Hide Your Entire Website from Search Engines

If you wish to prevent search engines from indexing your entire eDirectory website, follow these simple instructions:

Navigate to the Promote section within your eDirectory Editor.
Within the Promote menu, locate and click on SEO Center.
On the SEO Center page, go to General SEO Settings.
You will find a button or a similar control that allows you to prevent search engines from indexing your website. Click on this button.

Upon clicking the button, an alert message will appear, prompting you to confirm your action. To proceed with hiding your website from search engines, simply click on the “Hide website” button within the alert.

Once confirmed, your website will be configured to instruct search engine crawlers not to index its content.

Conclusion

By following the steps outlined above, you can effectively control the visibility of your eDirectory website in search engine results. Utilizing the built-in SEO settings within your Editor provides a straightforward method to prevent search engines from crawling and indexing your entire site when necessary. This can be useful during development, for private websites, or when specific content should not be publicly discoverable through search engines. Remember that while these settings instruct search engines not to index your site, it's important to understand the implications for organic traffic and adjust your settings according to your website's goals.