Do you know why Google removed your WordPress website from its index?

Most websites on the internet receive a significant portion of their traffic from search engines. This implies that losing the majority of your traffic could result from being de-indexed by Google. We’ll explain in this post why Google de-indexed your WordPress website and provide solutions.

Why Does a Website Get Removed From Google’s Index?

The Google Search Index is akin to an enormous repository of data gathered from every website that Google has viewed, examined, and archived. The index assists users in finding and displaying the most relevant web pages when they search for content on Google.

Your website will no longer appear in search results if Google has removed or de-indexed it. This implies that Google will not be able to send visitors to your website.

A website may be removed from Google’s search index for a variety of reasons, including:

• Legal concerns like infringement of copyright
• information of poor quality that has been scraped from other websites or contains spam
• Overuse of terms intended to sway search engines rather than benefit users
• Identical content
• An unsettling quantity of connections to or from your website
• Redirects or links that deceive users
• displaying distinct content to search engines and consumers, as well as removing some websites from your sitemap
• Malware or connections to malicious websites
• Infractions of Google’s rules or regulations

It is possible to guarantee user safety and the caliber and dependability of search results pages by excluding websites that have major problems such as these.

Thus, you should examine the content of your website as soon as possible if it has been de-indexed. Google will not display information on your website that is harmful or illegal in the search results. Make sure you comprehend Google Search Essentials, formerly known as Webmaster Guidelines.

Less serious problems can also cause Google to penalize your site, dropping its ranking instead of completely removing it from the index. See our guide on recovering from a Google search penalty for information on how to resolve these problems.

Having stated that, let’s examine a few potential causes for Google to de-index a WordPress website. To navigate to the section you’re interested in, use the links below:

1. Check Search Engine Visibility Settings in WordPress

You can choose to hide your website from search engines using WordPress. This configuration is meant to free up website owners’ time so they may work on their sites without being found through searches.

It’s possible that this option was inadvertently enabled by you or another user who has administrator access to your website.

To access the Settings » Reading page, simply login to the WordPress admin area. The “Search engine visibility” option can be found at the bottom of the page if you scroll down.

Verify that the “Search engine visibility” option has the box next to it unchecked. To save your settings, uncheck it and use the “Save Changes” option if it is checked.

2. Check Your Site With Google Search Console

With Search Console (previously Webmaster Tools), Google gives website owners the ability to see how Google views their websites. You can add your WordPress website to Google Search Console right now if you haven’t previously.

Once you have logged into your Google Search Console account, you must select the Security & Manual Actions option by scrolling down. When you get there, select the menu option labeled “Manual actions.”

One or more issues can be listed.

Spam, strange links, sly redirection, hidden text, keyword stuffing, low-quality or nonexistent material, policy infractions, and more can all be examples of these problems.

After carefully resolving each issue, you must select “Request Review.” Further details on requesting a review are covered in the final section of this guide.

To check for any new issues, you should next click on the “Security issues” menu option.

If there are any security issues, they will be identified and discussed, the same as in the “Manual actions” section. A website contaminated by malware and trojans is the most frequent cause of security issues with WordPress. In the following section, we demonstrate how to look for these.

You can select the “Request Review” button after the problems have been resolved. Below is further information on that.

3. Check Your Site for Malicious Code

Malware dissemination is one of the most frequent causes of a website being de-indexed. Hackers may install a script that allows them to infect users’ browsers with harmful malware if they manage to breach a WordPress website.

Users using browsers such as Google Chrome will receive a safe browsing notice when they visit your website.

There are several processes involved in cleaning a hacked WordPress website, including finding the compromised files and either cleaning or replacing them.

For this reason, we advise utilizing a security plugin or application to prevent hackers from accessing your website. Although Cloudflare is what we use at WPBeginner, you can also look through our list of the top WordPress security plugins.

If you’d prefer to handle things yourself, check out our beginner’s tutorial on repairing a WordPress website that has been hacked.

4. Reach Out to Google

Once you have completed all of the aforementioned processes, you must contact Google and request that they reevaluate whether to include your website in their index.

First, confirm that you have carefully reviewed your content and that your website complies with Google’s webmaster quality requirements.

In Google Search Console, you can select the “Request Review” button once you are positive that your website is secure and uncluttered.

When submitting the request for reconsideration, you should include the following information:

• It would be beneficial if you could elaborate on how you comprehend the Google Search Essentials best practices. By providing links to solutions you discovered in YouTube videos, Google forums, and other documents, you may illustrate this.
• Subsequently, you ought to exhibit that you have exhausted all possible avenues to resolve the problems you discovered in the Google Search Console. You can submit proof in the form of screenshots or a list of the URLs or viruses you have deleted.
• Lastly, you should ensure Google that you will not repeat past errors and that the content on your website is intended to truly assist users rather than just provide an SEO boost. Tell them you understand and promise to abide by their rules.

You’ll have to wait for Google to review the consideration request once you submit it. Depending on how serious the offenses for which you were punished were, this could take days or even months to complete.

See our comprehensive guide to Google Search Console for additional information.

We hope that this post has helped explain to you why Google de-indexed your WordPress website and how to resolve it.