rawareham 3 Share Posted July 10, 2019 (edited) Hi all, So I have built a website using index and sub pages throughout but now have found some issues relating to SEO. I do not want the individual sub pages to appear in search results as they do not make sense as standalone pages, and the user experience of the site has not been designed in this way. However if I noindex them, does this mean that the content within them is not crawable by google as part of the main index page? The index page itself doesn't have any content, so if I noindex the sub pages then from an SEO point of view there is nothing on the index page for google to crawl. SS don't seem to know a definite answer. Many thanks in advance Rosie Edited July 10, 2019 by rawareham Initial Revision Link to post
paul2009 30,538 Solution Share Posted July 10, 2019 (edited) When you have an Index Page containing a number of section pages, if you do not want visitors to stumble upon individual section pages and load them as pages in their own right, you should set it up as follows: Index Page - ensure the "Hide this page from search results" option on the SEO tab of Page Settings is not checked. This will ensure the Index page, including all section pages included in it, are crawled and indexed. Section Pages - Tick the "Hide this page from search results" option on the SEO tab of Page Settings to ensure the section is not crawled on its own. This does not affect crawling of the page's content as part of the Index. For more information on Index Page SEO, see the support page. Note that this is based on current experience. Squarespace and search engines make changes to their code and to their algorithms and so advice is always subject to change. Edited July 10, 2019 by Paul2009 Initial Revision Hi, I'm Paul, founder of SF Digital, building the features that Squarespace didn't include™. Pick dates in any format, show prices in other currencies, take orders without payment or improve your cart. I value honesty, integrity, transparency and respect. Links in my posts may refer to SF Digital products or may be affiliate links. I ♥ Squarespace. I've been a loyal supporter of the platform since 2007. Link to post
rawareham 3 Author Share Posted July 10, 2019 Thanks @Paul2009 Paul that's really helpful. I asked Squarespace support but they did not seem to know whether the content of the section pages could be crawled as part of the index page if I noindexed them individually. Which obviously would affect the SEO of the index page as it would ultimately have no content available to crawl. Link to post
rawareham 3 Author Share Posted July 10, 2019 Thanks @Paul2009 Paul that's really helpful. I asked Squarespace support but they did not seem to know whether the content of the section pages could be crawled as part of the index page if I noindexed them individually. Which obviously would affect the SEO of the index page as it would ultimately have no content available to crawl. Link to post
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