How to keep a page off my sitemap?

[Sundancer]

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

[Anita]

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

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Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!

[lisaleague]

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!

[Sundancer]

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.

[lisaleague]

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.

[Sundancer]

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.

[lisaleague]

Do you  mean the archive page template?

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

[Sundancer]

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?

[Sundancer]

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)

[lisaleague]

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.

[Sundancer]

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!

[lisaleague]

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:)

 

[lisaleague]

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.

[Sundancer]

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!

[Anita]

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/.

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Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!

[Sundancer]

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!

[lisaleague]

@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.

 

[christine123]

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!

[Annamari]

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).

[Author]

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