<b>The hidden setting that hides you from Google</b>

<b>The hidden setting that hides you from Google</b>

There's a tiny checkbox in WordPress that can make your whole site invisible to search engines. It's under Settings, then Reading: "Discourage search engines from indexing this site."

Why it exists: while you're building, you don't want Google showing a half-finished site. So developers tick it on purpose.

The trap: people forget to untick it at launch. Months later they wonder why they get zero search traffic, and it's this one box.

What to do:
— Keep it ticked while building privately.
— On launch day, go to Settings, then Reading, and uncheck it.
— Double-check it's unchecked after any developer hands the site back to you.

<i>In plain words:</i> one checkbox can hide you from Google, so make unchecking it part of your launch list.