When Your WordPress Home Page Goes AWOL: Troubleshooting Deindexing Issues
Hello, WordPress Enthusiasts,
If you’ve ever faced the frustration of a deindexed home page, you’re certainly not alone. Recently, I experienced this issue after making some updates to the home page of our WordPress site. Shortly after adjusting the “Front Page” dropdown menu in WordPress settings, our home page seemed to vanish from search results. This was particularly perplexing as our site consistently ranks at or near the top for our own brand name.
Initially, I assumed it could be a temporary lag in the re-indexing process. However, after a week of waiting, our home page was still absent from search results. Interestingly, the other pages on our site maintained their visibility for relevant keywords, so the issue seemed isolated.
I meticulously checked the meta tags on the home page and found no unexpected “no_index” directives. Additionally, Google Search Console indicated that our site health was excellent, showing green across the board and claiming that the home page was indeed indexed when I employed the Inspect tool. Yet, when executing a site search using the command site:{yourwebsite.com}, our home page was nowhere to be found.
This perplexing situation has left me scratching my head, and I’m reaching out to share this experience in hopes that someone in our community may have encountered a similar issue. If you have any insights or solutions, I would greatly appreciate your advice on how to remedy this mysterious absence from search results.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your suggestions!