[SarahTaylor]

Hi my dear sweet iThemes,

I'm finally getting around to submitting my site to blog directories and I was setting up my Google Webmaster account and found out that Robots hate me! The correct wording was "Robots restricted by Robots.txt"

If you check the code on my home page: www.SarahTaylor.com you can see a little section that says "noIndex, noFollow" which is where I'm assuming the hang-up lies.

I deactivated a plug-in called "Robots Meta" and am considering deactivating my All-In-One-SEO Pack Plug-In.

Any suggestions before I pull my hair out?
My google rankings SUCK and now I know why....

Thanks!
- Sarah Taylor

[SarahTaylor]

Holy smokes I figured it out!

I searched the forum for "NoIndex" and found someone else's post
http://forum.ithemes.com/index.php?topic=1209.0

that had the same issue and low-and-behold, that was it!

I have a nasty habit of gushing my problems and then searching for answers after I've let the hot air out.
Maybe it's psychologically fulfilling to be able to spell it all out.

Or it could be that I'm a blonde...

But hey, maybe someone learned something.

Okay, I'll shut up now, I promise

[Jesse]

ROFL!!

[SarahTaylor]

Issues return - it doesn't die!

I thought I figured it out.

BUT, I set up the Google Webmaster tools and did a little learning about robots and found that my Robots.txt script is blocking Googlebots. WAH!

I checked http://sarahtaylor.com/robots.txt and it shows

User-agent: *
Disallow:

And from what I understand, I should be gravy; yet, Google says I have issues.

Originally it did say Disallow: /

Which meant that my site was completely off limits b/c everything comes after the /

SO, I'm stumped.
Any ideas?

[Jesse]

Your best bet is to send The SEO Guy a PM and link this thread. He's our SEO man.

[SarahTaylor]

Okay, I will. Thank you!

[The SEO Guy]

Hi Sarah

Well, interesting...
1.) the robots.txt file is correct, although you should also have your Google XML Sitemap plugin installed, and the sitemap referenced in the robots.txt file!
2.) Looking at View Source on home page, there are no iterations of Noindex/Nofollow, so that's not the problem either.

Your reference to "Google Webmaster account" leads me to conclude that you've probably told Google that your site is "www.SarahTaylor.com" and that they should index that Domain / URL... Following your instructions, they go there, BUT... it does not exist!

Unfortunately for you, your site is actually set up as "SarahTaylor.com" - WITHOUT the WWW!!! 
- change the General Settings on the site to use the WWW. For anyone else reading this, you really should consistently use WWW on EVERY reference to your site, to prevent issues such as this (and others) arising!

Regardless of what you might think, "SarahTaylor.com" and "www.SarahTaylor.com are two completely different things as far as the SE's are concerned.

All In One SEO is not your problem... But you do need Google XML sitemaps installed, and you do need to fix your Permalinks so they generate Search Engine Friendly-URL's! 

At that point, things will work a whole lot better for you, down at Google HQ!

[SarahTaylor]

Ben is a genius.

I added the www to my Admin section and changed the permalinks to /%postname% and have the XML Sitemap on my To-Do list.

Thank you so much. You've saved my career (or at least helped to get me some business online in the future!)

[Jesse]

Yes, Ben is a genius!