When speaking to WordPress users and developers, and following threads on 𝕏, I’m always on the lookout for recurring problems that I might be able to solve. I identified one such case and launched a new plugin to help with it: SEO Warning.
Nearly every WordPress user is aware of the checkbox in the Settings labelled “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”. This option adds a meta tag to the site’s pages asking search engines to not index its pages for search. Most commonly this is used during development, and it works really well. In fact, it can work a little too well. During the busy launch phase of a new website, this checkbox is sometimes forgotten about, resulting in a newly published site that will see no reach at all with organic searches until someone realizes their mistake.
The solution is a simple but effective plugin that does a single job. It places a warning in the admin toolbar if the option is selected.
It’s a constant reminder that search engines are being discouraged from indexing the site, and once a site is made public, it is a highly visible notice.
WordPress itself has its own notice in a dashboard widget, and common SEO plugins provide an admin notice, but these are either not visible at all times, or can be dismissed. I wanted a warning that is small yet obvious, and doesn’t take up any new screen real estate.
To use SEO Warning, download it directly from the WordPress plugin repository, or search “SEO Warning” (with the quotes, trust me on this) in the Plugin area of your WordPress admin.
