What is function of, “Prevent the entire podcast from…”

Yes, checking that box will put the iTunes block tag in, but you don’t need to do that. Just simply do not submit it to Apple Podcasts. They won’t pull it into their directory unless you submit it. People can subscribe direct with the RSS feed, but it won’t be listed there.

Thanks for the reply Mike.

This was an important part of my question, “…while also blocking Google from indexing my site and putting the podcast on Google Podcasts as a public podcast.”

I currently do as you said; I don’t submit to Apple Podcasts but Google Podcasts and other platforms are indexing my site, pulling my private podcasts, and showing them publicly on their podcast platforms.

So will using that function and inserting those tags stop that from happening?

And please let me know about these prior questions: The feature warns of a “permanent consequence”, what does that mean? Can I uncheck and undo this change if something goes awry?

Thanks Mike, I appreciate the help.

You can put the ‘no index’ tag in on your site. You will have to consult someone that is familiar with how that works. I believe there are WordPress plugins that will do that.

I asked Google Podcasts how to prevent them from indexing my site and putting my private podcasts on Google Podcasts and they basically said: ‘to remove the podcast from Google Podcasts add active blocking tags (e.g., <itunes:block>yes</itunes:block) in your RSS feed.‘

So I think that plug-in function will do the trick. What do you think?

Also, I think you keep overlooking these questions, lol, “The feature warns of a “permanent consequence”, what does that mean? Can I uncheck and undo this change if something goes awry?”

Thanks for your assistance.

Hi harris2021,

Yes, enabling the <itunes:block> tag will send a signal to Google Podcasts to remove your feed from their podcast directory. The “permanent consequence” you referenced is a warning to those who’ve submitted a feed to Apple Podcasts that if they turn the <itunes:block> tag on, it will remove their show listing from Apple Podcasts. This has no impact on your situation. You can use the <itunes:block> tag without any worries.

Wonderful, thanks Shawn!

I think I’ve learned the difference between iTunes blocking tags and NoIndex tags. Someone can feel free to let me know if this evolved understanding is correct or not.

I checked the “Prevent the entire podcast from appearing in the Apple Podcast directory” option for a podcast. I did a Google search for episodes in that podcast and they stopped showing up as “podcast episodes” in a Google search.

Which was exactly what I wanted.

But then I noticed the podcast “posts” still appeared in Google search results (not as podcast episodes, but as normal blog posts with the player in them).

So I think I need to do another step to truly hide podcast episodes and podcast posts from Google – and I think that is what Mike mentioned earlier, the “NoIndex” tag, which can’t be done with the Blubrry plug-in.

Is this understanding correct?

Thanks for your help.

Hi harris2021,

Modifying your podcast RSS feed kept Google Podcasts from indexing your podcast RSS feed. But the rest of your website (including blog posts) isn’t impacted by what’s in your podcast RSS feed.

You can discourage Google from indexing your whole site. This article has some tips on how to do that: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-stop-search-engines-from-crawling-a-wordpress-site/

Thanks Shawn. I actually don’t want to block my entire site from Google, I only want to block the private podcast feeds. I still have a public podcast feed on the same site and I want my home page and other pages very visible.

So is my understanding correct: the Blubrry plug-in can keep my private podcast from appearing in Google Podcasts and appearing in Google Search results as podcast “episodes” (by inserting iTunes blocking tags), but it won’t stop Google from putting my podcast “posts” in search results (because that would require NoIndex tags)?

This is what my early testing is showing so far, but it will take a few more days to truly know because it can take a week for full site indexing to run again.

Thanks for your help.

…is my understanding correct: the Blubrry plug-in can keep my private podcast from appearing in Google Podcasts and appearing in Google Search results as podcast “episodes” (by inserting iTunes blocking tags), but it won’t stop Google from putting my podcast “posts” in search results…

Yes, that’s correct.

Thanks Shawn.

I am currently testing the Blubrry plug-in (iTunes Block tag added to the feed/category) on one private podcast to confirm it blocks the podcast episodes from appearing in other places.

I am also testing the Yoast SEO plug-in (NoIndex tag added to the feed/category) on a different private podcast to confirm it blocks the podcast post from appearing in Google search results.

If neither one fully blocks the private podcast from being found as episodes and posts, then I will try using both plug-ins on one private podcast feed/category.

This may take a couple of weeks to fully run. Stay tuned.