Huge SEO Issue: You’re blocking access to robots

Hello @justin660

Thanks for using the Yoast SEO plugin. If you deactivate all your plugins temporarily, are you able to uncheck the setting?

Hello @maybellyne, I have disabled every plugin and I am still unable to uncheck the box. I did notice that the site on my localhost does not have the same issue and the hosted site on IONOS has 3 “Must Use” plugins that are still active and I do not have the option to disable.

• 1&1 Managed WordPress
• 1&1 Product Subdomain
• IONOS Marketplace

Perhaps one of these are the issue?

Thank you,

Justin

@maybellyne – after spending 1.5 hours on the phone with IONOS tech support, the agent said we was able to fix the issue by changing some backend PHP files. Now the checked box (which I still cannot toggle) says, “Encourage search engines from indexing this site”.

I tried to explain that I was not convinced the issue had actually been resolved, as that statement is not correct grammar, but the technician insisted it had been fixed, and the Yoast warning did go away. However, this change came at the cost of much of my site’s design being ruined, luckily I had made a backup.

After restoring my backup, I am still getting the warning from Yoast SEO that robot access is being blocked, but the “Encourage search engines from indexing this site” option is checked.

I don’t think it’s a plugin issue since it was still present after disabling everything and the warning did go away even with the “Must use” plugins still installed. Apparently those cannot be disabled or removed.

Thank you,

Justin

Hello Justin,

Thanks for following up. Do you mind sharing the URL of the site and a screenshot of WordPress > Settings > Reading?

@maybellyne – thank you for looking in to this. The URL is below and screenshots are attached.

Thank you,

Justin

https://iconicwellness912452.live-website.com/

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by justin660.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by justin660.

Hello Justin,

I believe the issue is still with your web hosting provider. It’s not about the notification Yoast SEO shows. Deactivate Yoast SEO then check your page source; you should still have <meta name='robots' content='noindex, nofollow' />

Also, there’s something strange about their fix. I have checked the WordPress sites I have access to and even created a fresh WordPress installation. In WordPress > Settings > Reading, the setting is Discourage search engines from indexing this site and not Encourage search engines from indexing this site. If the issue is truly fixed, restoring a backup shouldn’t re-introduce the error.

With or without Yoast SEO active, do you still have <meta name='robots' content='noindex, nofollow' /> in the page source?

@maybellyne – I was able to get IONOS tech support to put everything back the way they were, and now the Discourage search engines from indexing this site is back to “normal”, meaning I cannot change the setting. I tried disabling Yoast and I still have the <meta name='robots' content='noindex, nofollow' /> in the header.

@maybellyne – The issue has been resolved. The reason for all of the trouble was that I was working on a “System Domain” supplied by IONOS for a “Managed WordPress” site. This is a ‘sandbox’ environment. Once the site was transferred to an actual domain, the ability to change the site indexing option was restored.

Thank you for your help.

Justin

Hello @justin660. Glad to hear the issue is finally fixed!