The new WordPress SEO plugin from Yoast version 3 may leave an error on your WordPress dashboard saying “Your homepage cannot be indexed by search engines. This is very bad for SEO and should be fixed.”
This is an error in itself and your page should be fine, to remove the error find on the WP Dashboard itself (not the Yoast Settings) a Yoast SEO Overview panel, here just click on fetch the current status and the error will be resolved. If the error still persists then the issue is something else.
This all seems to be the result of a collaboration between Yoast and OnPage.org – you now can opt out of this service which will stop any notifications for it, the checkbox to tick is in Yoast SEO Settings – General > On.Page.org
4 comments
Mayapur Voice
We got this same message today and did whatever is told (fetch again), we also don’t use wordfence, but the msg doesn’t go unless I disable Onpage.org option. The question is, is it only onpage.org which is unable to index the site or something else. If it’s only onpage.org then not a big issue i guess.
Neil Gowran
I would say the issue is with OnPage.org only – you can do a simple test to see your indexed pages by searching for
site:yourdomain.comand see the pagesScott Hendison
For many people this “fetch current status” didn’t clear things up, and this thread at WordPress points out that the actual problem is being exacerbated Wordfence – https://wordpress.org/support/topic/yoast-seo-update-causing-issues-your-homepage-cannot-be-indexed-by-search-en?replies=13#post-7735045
Neil Gee
Thanks Scott, also in the latest Yoast SEO version you can now disable the OnPage service in the settings.