Google Search Console - Issue with root domain not indexing

L3gacy

L3gacy

Member
Hey guys, Google search console is telling me it can not index my main domain. I have my forums as the root of the domain, in short I have it loading featured/ as my home page URL. However when I run a test I get "No: 'noindex' detected in 'robots' meta tag" From what I can tell I have the nod setup right.
Screenshot 2025-04-16 233054.webp
This is what I get when I run my root URL, Also google is not picking me up any ideas?Screenshot 2025-04-16 233352.webpScreenshot 2025-04-16 233653.webpScreenshot 2025-04-16 233738.webp
 
Your home page has this:

HTML: 
<meta name="robots" content="noindex" />

in the source code. That is what is causing the "no indexing". This is not typical of the stock "What's New" page as far as I know.

I would disable your addon's and see if that line of code disappears. Then turn your add-ons back on one-by-one to find out which one is doing it - of course you may be able to find it quicker by disabling and checking the add-ons specific to your "What's New" page first.
 
The add-on does not have to be specific to the What's New page to inject code on it. Disable all add-ons and see if that line referenced above is removed from the page source code.
 
M@rc said:
Looks like it might be (view source for "noindex"):
xenforo.com

Featured content

xenforo.com xenforo.com

I'm guessing they're using the route feature to use this page as their homepage, which is noindex.
Click to expand...
That would make sense that XenForo adds it for featured content page, since it is all duplicate content. Probably going to need to add a template mod to remove it.
 
That sounds over my head, do you know of any mods that do this? I really want to keep this look for my website but it's very important that this page gets indexed.
😯
 
Add this template mod:

You are going to need to be in "Development" mode...
in your community/src/config.php be sure you add this to get into development mode, it is required to add a template modification:

Code: 
if($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] === 'YOUR.IP.ADDRESS.HERE'){
    $config['development']['enabled'] = true;
}

Without turning on development mode you will not see the button below.

Go to Admin Control Panel -> Appearance -> Template Modifications -> select: Add Template Modification (top right button on page)

Template: whats_new_wrapper
Modification key: RedDead3-homepageindex
Description: Allow indexing of featured content homepage.
Search Type: Simple replacement
Find:
Code: 
<xf:if is="{$pageSelected} != 'overview'">
Replace:
Code: 
<xf:if is="{$pageSelected} != 'overview' && {$pageSelected} != 'featured'">

Leave the rest at default settings and save.

Remove/disable the lines you added to config.php, to get back out of development mode.
 
Last edited:
Thanks man, I'm having an issue it looks like. I don't know if it has to do with the fact I have a shared IP but I added that and I still do not see the button. I then tried to remove if($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] === 'YOUR.IP.ADDRESS.HERE
'){ and just add

$config['development']['enabled'] = true;
}

But that broke the site.
 
Last edited:
You can use development mode without specifying the IP by just putting $config['development']['enabled'] = true; on its own line. It's not as safe though. Just be sure to set to = false; when done.
 
For sitemap, you don't need to do anything additional. Just give it a little time, can take a day or two for Google to pick up up on the page code and make the change. Google likes to make sure the page code does not revert back to its previous state before adding previously blocked pages to the site index.
 
Sweet, Thank you again for the support!. I'm excited to have it indexed. I'm just happy I had the forethought to check google search console. As I could not understand why none of my news was being indexed and not showing up in google searches.
 
L3gacy said:
Sweet, Thank you again for the support!. I'm excited to have it indexed. I'm just happy I had the forethought to check google search console. As I could not understand why none of my news was being indexed and not showing up in google searches.
Click to expand...
But it would also be good, if you care about SEO, to have some actual content (not just links) on that page.
 
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