September 23, 2023

Search engines blocked warning Plugin

Shows a warning in the WordPress administration header when the option "Search Engine Visibility: Discourage search engines from indexing this si …

The plugin shows a warning in the WordPress administration header when the option “Search Engine Visibility: Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is enabled.

It’s very important when moving a website from staging or development to production to remember to switch this option off. Or even better never switch it on.

SETTINGS / READING “Search Engine Visibility: Discourage search engines from indexing this site”: Checking this box tells search engines to completely avoid inspecting / indexing the site’s contents, meaning that the site will not show up in search results.

What can I do with this plugin?

This plugin shows a WARNING in the administration header of the website when “Search Engine Visibility: Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is enabled.

What ideas is this plugin based on?

This plugin is based on the idea of the “Discourage Search Engines Notifier” plugin.

System requirements

PHP version 5.6 or greater.

Search engines blocked warning Plugin in your Language!

This first release is avaliable in English and Spanish. In the “languages” folder we have included the necessary files to translate this plugin.

If you would like the plugin in your language and you’re good at translating, please drop us a line at Contact us.

Contact

For further information please send us an email.

Installation

First you will have to upload the plugin to the /wp-content/plugins/ folder.
Then activate the plugin in the plugin panel. There are no settings.

Screenshots

Administration header when "Search Engine Visibility: Discourage search engines from indexing this site" is selected.
WordPress administration header with plugin warning.

FAQ

Why did you make this plugin?

We often develop websites on staging or development servers. Sometimes the developers go to SETTINGS / READING and check “Search Engine Visibility: Discourage search engines from indexing this site” because they think it will help them not becoming indexed by a search engine.
Much better than using this option (which by the way you should never use) you should install a Maintenance plugin like Maintenance and activate the option “503: Service temporarily unavailable, Google analytics will be disable”.

Does Search engines blocked warning make changes to the database?

No. The plugin doesn’t write any options or settings to the database.

How can I check out if the plugin works for me?

Install and activate. If the “Search Engine Visibility: Discourage search engines from indexing this site” option is selected you will see a WARNING in the header.

How can I remove Search engines blocked warning?

You can simply activate, deactivate or delete it in your plugin management section. There are no options stored in the database so you can delete it also via FTP and everything will be removed.

Are there any known incompatibilities?

Please don’t use it with WordPress MultiSite, as it has not been tested.

Which PHP version do I need?

This plugin has been tested and works with PHP versions 5.6 and greater. WordPress itself recommends using PHP version 7.2 or greater. If you’re using a PHP version lower than 5.6 please upgrade your PHP version or contact your Server administrator.

Are there any server requirements?

Yes. The plugin requires a PHP version 5.6 or higher and we recommend using PHP version 7.1 or higher. The plugin has been tested with PHP up to 7.2.

Do you make use of Search engines blocked warning yourself?

Of course we do. That’s why we created it. 😉

Changelog

1.0.0 (08/11/2018)

First official release.