WordPress’ built-in feature to keep your website from showing up in search.

Never in the history of websites has one tiny checkbox caused so many “oh shit” moments.

Inside your dashboard, under ‘Settings’ > ‘Reading’ there lives a small checkbox labeled “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”. When checked, bots/crawlers/spiders will be turned away from indexing your website.

Search Engine Visibility checkbox
Search Engine Visibility checkbox

This is a great feature while your website is under development (and you don’t want it to be found) but forgetting to uncheck this once you go live can cause quite the embarrassment.

It’s always best to double (if not triple) check this box is unticked once you’re website is ready for its big debut.