Using Yoast? “Your homepage cannot be indexed by search engines” – DON’T PANIC!

How to clear that worrying "Your homepage cannot be indexed by search engines" message from Yoast.

November 18, 2015

Warning: some of our posts contain affiliate links, most contain traces of nuts. All posts have been written in an environment where nuts are frequently located. Read more...

UPDATE 25/11/15: OnPage have reached out to ask us to link over to their special OnPage & Yoast FAQ page – which we’re very happy to do!

UPDATE 23/11/15: Well, Yoast SEO is now on version 3.03, so most problems should be resolved. If you’re still stuck, try https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-seo

UPDATE 18/11/15: Yoast have since released SEO version 3.01 that resolves this problem – just update as usual.

A flash new version of Yoast SEO has rolled out this morning and, for those of us who like to keep on top of updates, some will be seeing this rather surprising message:

Your homepage cannot be indexed by search engines

Sounds scary, doesn’t it? And to make it worse, the link doesn’t go anywhere useful, just straight to Yoast’s homepage.

Don’t Panic

The error has been caused by Yoast adding in functionality to check your homepage with OnPage – read more here. Unfortunately, it adds the functionality but doesn’t check the status when installing. So the default is you’ve failed the test.

On your WordPress dashboard just scroll down to find the Yoast SEO Posts Overview widget and click the button “Fetch the current status”.

Click "Fetch the current status" — Click “Fetch the current status”

Moments later your red light should change to green and the scary little warning should disappear next time you refresh your dashboard.

Not Clever

So, nothing to worry about. But not very clever panicking all your users, Yoast!

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Warning: some of our posts contain affiliate links, most contain traces of nuts. All posts have been written in an environment where nuts are frequently located.

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Posted in Website Tools

22 thoughts on “Using Yoast? “Your homepage cannot be indexed by search engines” – DON’T PANIC!”

Amandah Tayler Blackwell
November 18, 2015 at 12:54

Thanks. I clicked the Analyze Current Site and all it did was take me to OnPage.Org where you have to sign up for a free account.
1. Jonathan Gwyer
  November 18, 2015 at 13:13
  
  Hi, Amanda,
  
  Just click “Fetch the current status” – I’m guessing the entire site scanning will be a premium option!
  1. Amandah Tayler Blackwell
    November 18, 2015 at 13:32
    
    Oops! It’s still early. 🙂 I clicked “Fetch the current status” and the button is green.
Cindy
November 18, 2015 at 13:36

Thank you! Now tell me how you got this post indexed so quickly. 🙂
1. chromaniac
  November 18, 2015 at 13:46
  
  Google index regularly updated WP blogs fairly quickly.
2. Jonathan Gwyer
  November 18, 2015 at 16:29
  
  More luck than judgement 🙂
TipsterHQ
November 18, 2015 at 13:46

Thanks, had me pulling my hair out for a bit.
1. Marcin
  November 18, 2015 at 14:10
  
  I had the same feeling 😀
Alan Artt
November 18, 2015 at 14:16

I’m seeing a blue hyperlink warning about the Homepage but no Yoasts Post overview 🙁 Does it usually appear under the Yoast SEO menu on the LH side of the Admin panel?
George
November 18, 2015 at 14:20

That help me! 🙂
Emma Tustian
November 18, 2015 at 15:11

Argh, mine’s grey. Guess I’ll need to go to onpage
Nina Alexander
November 18, 2015 at 16:12

Thank you so much!!!
The Book Disciple
November 18, 2015 at 18:25

Thanks so much for this! I had no idea how to deal with this!
WordpressExamples
November 18, 2015 at 22:17

Joost (Yoast) is actually coming with a fix tomorrow (Thursday) because there are more problems with the update (it screws up all websites built with the popular Divi Theme for instance).
1. Jonathan Gwyer
  November 18, 2015 at 22:46
  
  Ouch, that’s painful.
Stefan Guy
November 19, 2015 at 16:13

Life saver! Thanks man,!
Lisa Sicard
November 21, 2015 at 10:59

Mine still does not work, I still get the error message? Also don’t know how to change snippet code or meta description with the new Yoast 🙁
1. Jonathan Gwyer
  November 23, 2015 at 16:18
  
  Hi, Lisa,
  
  The latest updates should have fixed everything, although apparently you still may have problems if you use Wordfence / some security packages.
  
  You should be able to edit the snippet information by clicking on it in the Yoast widget.
  
  If you’re still stuck, try https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-seo
  
  Good luck!
Jonathan Gwyer
November 25, 2015 at 13:30

Just a quick note to all our commenters (even though I’ve closed comments here now) – Hendrick from OnPage got in touch and asked if I could share a link through to their special OnPage & Yoast SEO FAQ.

Of course, I’m happy to!

https://en.onpage.org/lp/yoast/faq/
techysucks
February 20, 2016 at 16:12

I tried this solution and when I clicked on Fetch, refreshed my dashboard, the error is still there. The only way I could make that go away is to disable the “Enable OnPage.org indexability check”. I guess that won’t hurt? Also, I found a post by Chris from OnPage pointing Wordfence as a reason so he advised to “turn off the block fake google crawlers options in WordFence” so they can crawl. Hoping for the best result.. 🙂
1. Jonathan Gwyer
  February 22, 2016 at 12:25
  
  Good tip, thanks!
2. my3sons
  April 12, 2017 at 19:46
  
  This is the TIP that solved my problem! Thanks!

Comments are closed.