Search Engines

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All the major search engines have help pages. If you have any questions regarding any aspect at all, contact them. Please do not contact Support – we cannot help.

Google provides information and tools for webmasters. Please seek help there.

For the sake of brevity, the following questions all refer to Google. However the same answers apply to all search engines.

Why isn’t my blog in Google?
The search engines can take 4-6 weeks or more to add any new sites. Please contact Google for more information.

I changed my privacy settings and now I want Google to include me
You need to wait 4-6 weeks or more.

I changed my privacy settings and I don’t want to be in Google
You need to wait until your results drop in the search engine. There is nothing we can do.

Can I upload meta tags / sitemap for the search engines?
That is not possible. Google and most other search engines ignore meta tags.

Can I upload a file so Google clears its cache of my blog?
That is not possible.

Can you make Google remove the copy of my blog?
We have no control over Google. Please contact them.

I selected “no search engines” but I’m still in Google

The “block search engines” setting on Settings -> Privacy will ask well-behaved search engines not to index your web site in future. It may or may not affect content that has already been indexed by search engines. It won’t stop Google from indexing other web sites that link to yours. Please contact Google for more information.

The “Publish” button on the Post tab is aptly named: when you click it, your words go live on the internet for millions of people to read, copy, index and link to as they please. The “block search engines” option will advise search engines that you don’t want your content indexed, but they are not obliged to obey it. If you don’t want your content to be available to the entire world, your options are:

1. Use the Post Password feature to protect an individual post
2. Use the visible only to users I choose setting on Options/Privacy to protect your entire blog
3. Don’t publish your content in the first place

Can you tell me how to use tags best for Google?
Please search the forums for previous advice, and contact Google if you have any questions.

Why does Google return a certain result for my blog/post?
Please contact Google. We have no control over the search results, nor special knowledge about how they are selected.

Please do not contact Support on any search engines issues. We cannot help.

Last modified: July 21, 2009