Hide from Search Engines

Your show has public pages on show.fm: a show page and a page for each episode. If you post your episodes on your own website, you may want search engines to list your site rather than the show.fm pages. Hide from search engines does that.

What it changes

When it is on:

• Search engines are asked not to list your show page or your episode pages on show.fm.
• Search engines are pointed to your own site where there is one to point to. An episode page points to the episode's post on a connected WordPress site. An episode with no post keeps pointing to its own show.fm page, so it is only hidden. Your show page points to your show's website, if you have one.
• Nothing changes for listeners. The pages, links, players and your RSS feed keep working exactly as before.

It does not hide your podcast from podcast apps or directories. To stop Apple Podcasts listing your show, use Hide from Apple Podcasts instead.

Turn it on or off

1. Open your podcast and go to Podcast Settings → Distribution.
2. Scroll to Feed controls.
3. Turn Hide from search engines on or off.
4. Click Save changes.

When it is on, a line under the switch says where search engines are actually pointed: the WordPress site that holds your latest episode's post, your website, or nowhere yet if you have neither.

You can also turn it on while connecting a WordPress site, with Hide these shows' show.fm pages from search engines. It is the same setting. That box starts unticked, so connecting a site never hides your pages unless you choose to.

When you disconnect your last WordPress site

show.fm never turns this setting off for you. If it is on and the last WordPress site that posts your show is disconnected, its key expires, or the show is taken off it, your show.fm pages stay hidden and your episodes are no longer pointed anywhere else.

show.fm tells you when that happens:

• On Connected sites, the result of the disconnect says the setting is still on, with a link to Distribution.
• Your podcast's Overview shows Your show.fm pages are still hidden from search engines until you turn the setting off, reconnect a site, or dismiss it. If you dismiss it and later connect and lose a site again, it comes back.
• Under the switch in Feed controls, a note says no WordPress site is connected now.

To have your pages listed again, turn Hide from search engines off and click Save changes.

Search engines take time

Search engines notice the change the next time they visit your pages, which can take days or weeks.