[Plugin: WordPress MU Sitewide Tags Pages] search engines blocked

Ok, I think I found my answer. I had it set not allow SE indexing of the “tag” blog posts since they are duplicates of the original posts, and thus might result in Google demerits. At the same time, I had my main site set as my “tags” blog. This apparently tripped the privacy setting for the whole main site. This leads me to another couple of questions. I notice in the plugin settings that it says there are “advantages and disadvantages” re both options, i.e., separate tags blog vs main site as tags blog. I’m guessing this is one of the disadvantages of using the main page as the tags blog? What are the disadvantages/advantages of using a separate tags blog? Could I show the tags blog excerpts on the main blog via Genesis featured widget like I do now? Can I change to a separate tags blog midstream?

Could I show the tags blog excerpts on the main blog via Genesis featured widget like I do now?

It is possible to do that but the SWT plugin does not provide that functionality.

Can I change to a separate tags blog midstream?

Yes. You can change that as often as you like.

I’m using sitewide tags on the main site. We have some posts on that site from guest bloggers, other bloggers each have their own site. I need to block the posts imported by SWT from search indexing so there are no duplicates, but not also block regular posts on the main site.

Does SWT wholesale block the main site from being indexed, including all pages and posts if I enable “Tags pages will not be indexed by search engines” or does it only block indexing of those posts that have been imported and have a permalink back to the users blog?

Here is what I’m trying to achieve:
Mainsite.com
SWT post from subsite hidden fro search engines
Post created and posted on Mainsite.com is indexed by search engines (since there are no copies)

Thank You!

Does SWT wholesale block the main site from being indexed, including all pages and posts if I enable “Tags pages will not be indexed by search engines”

That setting turns indexing on or off for the whole tags blog site.

Just want to make sure I understand this terrific and indispensable plugin (thank you!) I have tags blog enabled. Under sub-item #1, I have the blog named “tags” and under sub-item #2, I have selected “post to main blog.” Finally, for privacy, I have selected “Tags pages will not be indexed by search engines.” My questions are thus:
First, if I understand this correctly, “tags.mydomain.com” will not be indexed but my main blog can still be indexed (I have index selected in the general settings for the main blog)?
Second, shouldn’t “tags.mydomain.com” show up in “my sites” or “all sites”(it doesn’t)?
Third, Or is it just the main page blog posts that will not be indexed but the main page itself will still be indexed?

If you have post to main blog checked then the tags blog name is ignored. With the settings you have indexing is turned off on your main site.

The sites that are listed in my sites are ones where you have a user role. If you want to add any site to your list add yourself as an admin.

Thanks Ron. This plugin is the most important on my site. Thank you heaps for creating it. I still would like to have my site listed by search engines but would like to avoid being punished for duplicate content. Currently, I’m using SWT to display excerpts and thumbnails of subdomain blog posts in a widget area of the main site (using Genesis News theme & the Featured widget) Any suggestions for the optimal settings in which the main site is still ranked (is “indexed” the same?) by search engines but not punished for duplicate content? Or do I have to make a choice between the two?

Wadams it sounds like you have to choose. You could do something custom in Robots.txt to try and account for this, but from what I’ve read this isn’t a recommended practice.

Apparently the place to tell search engines that the content should be indexed at the subsite is in the header, but I’m not sure how to exactly do this. Ideally, the plugin would add a statement to the header (may require editing template) that tells the the search spider the content location. The module does a version of this in replacing the title links with the original subsite link.

Example:
– Post from jason.mysite.com/a-blog-post

– Users on mysite.com see post summary and title. Clicking title sends them to jason.mysite.com/a-blog-post

(This is how SWT works now)

However, mysite.com/a-blog-post exists as a duplicate that search spiders can crawl.

Solution:

– Template grabs jason.mysite.com/a-blog-post and puts a statement in the header of mysite.com/a-blog-post that defines jason.mysite.com/a-blog-post as the source or “location.”