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How to keep a page off my sitemap?

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Community Forums › Forums › Archived Forums › General Discussion › How to keep a page off my sitemap?

This topic is: not resolved

Tagged: exclude, html site map, html sitemap, remove omit delete pages from archive page template, Site Map, sitemap

  • This topic has 18 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 8 months ago by Annamari.
Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • May 28, 2013 at 4:31 pm #42963
    Sundancer
    Member

    I am creating some thank you pages for new subscribers, and I would like to keep these pages off my sitemap. I know where to click to discourage bots from indexing the pages, but how can I keep the pages from showing up on my sitemap? I'll be offering some free bonuses to new subscribers, and would like to keep the pages a bit more private.

    I'm using the theme "Going Green". Also, can I remove the Author Archive from the sitemap page, too? (I'm the only author, so it's just wasted space.) Thanks!

    http://squarefootabundance.com
    May 28, 2013 at 4:44 pm #42971
    Anita
    Keymaster

    You need to use something like Simply Excludes to exclude them - http://wordpress.org/plugins/simply-exclude/.


    Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!

    May 29, 2013 at 7:48 am #43052
    lisaleague
    Member

    Hi anitac,

    Can you please clarify how to do this - I use Simply Exclude to keep stuff out of searches - but it does not have a setting to keep stuff off the archive page template which is what I would use for a sitemap, and probably what @Sundancer was referring to.

    On posts you can exclude from the archives (blog page), feed, front/home, searches; and on pages, from searches and widget:pages.

    Is there another way to do this, or another plugin you can recommend?

    Thanks!

    May 29, 2013 at 12:37 pm #43088
    Sundancer
    Member

    My theme automatically creates a sitemap page, by default visible to the public, which lists all posts and pages.  I have a choice to make this sitemap page private, but would prefer to leave it available for visitors to use.

    I'm also not sure if this page is the same one that the search engines use for my site (an XML sitemap) - anyone know?  If it is, I don't know if making it private would block the search engines from using it.

    May 29, 2013 at 12:43 pm #43089
    lisaleague
    Member

    Sundancer - Which theme do you use?

    An xml site map is different than a public site map.

    I use WordPress SEO by Yoast to control what I want to show in the sitemap or not.

    May 29, 2013 at 12:48 pm #43091
    Sundancer
    Member

    Oh, and this sitemap page is also shown by default when a 404 error code comes up. Not sure how to change that, if I wanted to.

    May 29, 2013 at 12:50 pm #43094
    lisaleague
    Member

    Do you  mean the archive page template?

    Which theme? If you set a page or post to private it hides it.

    May 29, 2013 at 12:51 pm #43096
    Sundancer
    Member

    Oops! You beat me to the enter button!

    I'm using Going Green. And, yes, this is a public sitemap. The Yoast plugin - is that for the public or xml sitemap?

    May 29, 2013 at 12:53 pm #43099
    Sundancer
    Member

    We did it again!

    I'm not sure if it has a different name. It shows up as squarefootabundance.com/sitemap/

    I've seen other people refer to the main blog page as the archive page, but I would consider this public sitemap a true archive. But I don't know which it refers to when I select noarchive under the theme SEO section for each page.

    I can't "hide" my thank you pages, because that prevents anyone else from viewing them. I need my new subscribers to be able to view them by a direct link.

    (edited)

    May 29, 2013 at 12:55 pm #43100
    lisaleague
    Member

    That  is called the archive page template. You can use it for a site map. WordPress SEO can create  an xml sitemap for search engines not people. Two completely different things.

    If you want things to be excluded on the archive page template (what you are calling site map - the one that shows on the 404 page) you can set the post or page to private) OR you can set a post or page redirect with Yoast.

    You can also use a membership plugin to protect the contents of the post or page from the public. I hope this helps!  The plugin @anitac mentioned will exclude from search but not from this page.

    May 29, 2013 at 12:58 pm #43103
    Sundancer
    Member

    I can’t “hide” my thank you pages, because that prevents anyone else from viewing them. I need my new subscribers to be able to view them by a direct link. A membership plugin won't work for that reason, either, I think.

    I'll have to look into the Yoast plugin. I'm trying to limit the plugins I'm using, to minimize possible conflicts and speed up page loading. But I definitely need to work this out ASAP.  Thanks for the suggestions!

    May 29, 2013 at 1:00 pm #43105
    lisaleague
    Member

    That's just a page that was set up using that template.  The 404 page uses that template.

    So for example if I go to your site and I look for the url

    http://squarefootabundance.com/yellow

    or

    http://squarefootabundance.com/this-cool-post

    I get the same page.

    But the page /sitemap is not automatically created by default.

    But nice vegetables:)

     

    May 29, 2013 at 1:05 pm #43107
    lisaleague
    Member

    Yes, I understand - I have thank you pages for my email subscribers too.

    Yoast is definitely one to include in your list. http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/

    His and Genesis specifically designed to work well together.

    May 29, 2013 at 1:24 pm #43110
    Sundancer
    Member

    Hmmm... I've been playing around with the plugin a little bit - using Instant WordPress on my desktop with a copy of my site. I set the thank you page to be redirected (which works), BUT the page name still shows up on my archive page (sitemap). Is there a way to prevent that?

    And this plugin should definitely help me improve my basic SEO settings!

    May 29, 2013 at 2:37 pm #43120
    Anita
    Keymaster

    You guys have been blowing up my phone!!! I am not going to read everything here - but if you go to a page or post - there are settings per page and post to exclude it from the Archive - see image on the plugin screenshots - http://wordpress.org/plugins/simply-exclude/screenshots/.


    Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!

    May 29, 2013 at 4:13 pm #43130
    Sundancer
    Member

    Finally - an EASY solution!

    Install "[B]PC Hide Pages[/B]" WordPress plugin.  It's extremely simple. It gives you a list of all your pages (not posts), and you just check off which ones you want to hide. It removes those pages from archives, public sitemap, and search results AND tells the search engines to not index or cache the pages. The pages remain available to anyone that has the exact URL.

    Perfect for thank you pages, bonus pages, etc. It's still important that you don't have a link to those hidden pages anywhere else on your website, AND that your social sharing plugin doesn't automatically allow people to share those hidden pages. Also, check that the settings for any automatic cross-linking plugins won't generate links to your hidden page.

    I am so thankful that someone created such a simple, helpful tool!

    May 30, 2013 at 8:33 am #43197
    lisaleague
    Member

    @anitac - I understand what you are saying - but if you check off  "archive" Simply Exclude will NOT keep it off a page that you create using the Archive template type.  It will remove it from a category archive, though. Completely different.

     

    February 2, 2015 at 2:51 pm #139443
    christine123
    Member

    I realize your post is quite old, but I have a solution so I thought I'd reply.

    I, too, wanted to remove / delete / omit certain pages (like the Thank You page I created for a new email subscriber, appointment cancellation and reschedule pages I created for someone booking an appt with me, etc.) from the human-friendly site map (versus an XML sitemap for search engines) I created on my site by using the Archive Template provided with Genesis and my Balance Child Theme.

    Here's what worked for me:

    Copy page_archive.php from Genesis to your child theme directory. (You need to do this via your hosting provider.)

    Edit the copied file. The list of pages is output via this line:

    <?php wp_list_pages( 'title_li=' ); ?>
    To exclude a particular Page having a ID of say, 123, change it to

    <?php wp_list_pages( 'title_li=&exclude=123' ); ?>
    To exclude multiplage Pages, use comma separated Page IDs like this:

    <?php wp_list_pages( 'title_li=&exclude=1666,38' ); ?>

    I found these steps on Sridhar's website here:
    http://sridharkatakam.com/how-to-exclude-a-page-when-using-genesis-archive-page-template/

    Hope this helps!

    July 13, 2016 at 7:06 am #189395
    Annamari
    Member

    Thanks for the info, Sundancer, that was the solution for me too. I think it depends on what child theme you use, I tried adding the code to my functions.php and it didn't work (I created my own theme from the Genesis Child Sample).

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Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)
  • The forum ‘General Discussion’ is closed to new topics and replies.

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