Huge SEO Issue: You’re blocking access to robots.

If you clear your cache (server, plugin/theme, browser, or CDN such as Cloudflare) does this resolve the issue? If you are not sure how to clear your server cache you should speak with your host provider.

Also, we checked on your site https://performancecomms.com/ and do see it is being indexed in a Google search here. Also, we reviewed your robots.txt at https://performancecomms.com/robots.txt and there is nothing in it preventing the site from being indexed, nor did we find any robots meta tags in the source code set to ‘noindex.’

Thanks for getting back to me Carl. I have cleared my cache in Sucuri and used WP Super Cache to clear elsewhere but it’s made no difference. Good news there’s no damage being done but would be good to clear the error if possible.

Cheers
Andy

Hi @andyjmurphy,

That’s really strange to hear that the notification keeps coming back. Can you go to Settings > Reading and confirm that there is not a checkmark next to the Search engine visibility setting for “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”?

Just checked again and no, the box isn’t ticked.

Is there a cache I’m missing maybe?

I did wp super cache and the Sucuri cache

@andyjmurphy If you’ve already cleared the caching from any caching plugins you are using on the site, it’s possible that your hosting provider may offer some additional caching at the server level, or some additional service such as Cloudflare. We’d also recommend checking with them to see whether that is the case.

Hi,

If you temporarily deactivate the plugin, and clear your browser’s cache, and then reactivate the plugin, does the notification message go away? You can refer to this article for more information:

• https://yoast.com/help/how-to-clear-my-browsers-cache/
• https://yoast.com/help/how-to-clear-your-wordpress-cache/

Deactivating the plugin and clearing cache temporarily cleared the warning, but it has now returned.

I am hosted by Host-It and can’t see a way to clear cache in there unless anyone can point me in the right direction?

@andyjmurphy

We do use caching to display notifications on websites. We suspect the notification is caught up in some kind of cache. We suggest the following:

1. If you were to use a different browser like Chrome or FireFox does the issue resolve?

2. If you use Incognito or Private Mode does it still show?

3. Please also contact your host provider and have them clear the server cache. Does the issue resolve?

4. If you briefly deactivate the caching plugins does the issue resolve?

I’m struggling to get any support to clear the server cache but none of the other things has made a difference

Hi @andyjmurphy,

Sorry to hear that this “Huge SEO issue” warning appearing is still appearing. From what we can tell, the warning that your site is not being indexed is incorrect, so you can safely disregard it.

We tried to reproduce the problem using the latest version of Yoast SEO, but the warning goes away after changing the “Search engine visibility” setting under Settings > Reading. We also haven’t received other reports of this happening, so this is most likely something specific to your site.

If you’d like us to check your site settings and investigate further, you can always purchase Yoast SEO Premium which gives you access to our premium email support.

Thanks, Priscilla, I just heard back from the hosts and they don’t cache on the server so that wouldn’t have been it.

Not to worry. So long as its doing no harm then I will just ignore it.

Cheers

Andy