How to hide a page from Google, set a canonical URL or redirect a page

In TeleportHQ, three switches at the bottom of a page's Page SEO Settings control how search engines treat that page. No Index keeps the page out of Google. Custom Canonical tells Google another address is the main version. Custom Redirect sends visitors from this page to another page or website. To hide the whole site, for example a test site, turn off Show this site in search engines in Project settings → SEO & social → Search engines, where Custom Redirects also lists every redirect. All of these take effect after you publish.

Before you start#

• These settings are available on every TeleportHQ plan.
• No Index doesn't hide the page from visitors. Anyone with the link can still open it. To make a page private, see How to make a page visible only to signed-in users. To leave a page out of your published site completely, see How to keep a page out of your published site.

Open Page SEO Settings#

1. In the left sidebar, click the layers icon (tooltip Pages, Components & Tree View).
2. In the Pages list, right-click the page. You can also click the … button at the end of its row.
3. Click Page SEO Settings. A panel named after the page opens, for example Terms & Conditions Settings.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the panel. You see:
   1. No Index
   2. Custom Canonical
   3. Custom Redirect

Each switch saves as soon as you flip it. The same settings are also above the canvas: with the page open, click Page settings at the top right of the canvas, then SEO.

Hide a page from Google (No Index)#

Use No Index in TeleportHQ for pages that shouldn't appear in search results, like a thank-you page after a form.

1. Turn on No Index.
2. Publish your site.

TeleportHQ adds a noindex tag to the page and leaves it out of your sitemap. Google drops the page from its results the next time it visits it.

Hide the whole site from search engines#

Turn off Show this site in search engines in TeleportHQ for a test or demo site that shouldn't appear in Google at all. It's on for every new site.

1. In the TeleportHQ editor, at the bottom of the left sidebar, click the Project settings cog.
2. Under Site, click SEO & social, then Search engines.

3. Turn off Show this site in search engines. It saves on its own.

   

4. Publish your site.

From that publish on, every address of your site asks search engines not to list it, including your custom domain. In the Publish window, under Production, a line reads "Hidden from search engines. Every address of this site asks them not to list it; change it in Project Settings › SEO."

To show your site in search engines again, turn the switch back on and publish. Visitors can always open the site; only search engines are told to skip it. To take the site offline for everyone instead, use Unpublish in the Publish window.

Point Google to the main version (Custom Canonical)#

A canonical URL tells Google which address is the "real" one when similar content lives at several addresses. By default, every TeleportHQ page points to its own address. Change it only when this page copies another one, for example a campaign landing page that repeats your homepage.

1. In Page SEO Settings, turn on Custom Canonical.
2. In the field, type the full address of the main version. For example, https://sweetcrumbs.com/cakes.
3. Click outside the field to save.
4. Publish your site.

Every page points to its own address because the Use Self Canonical URLs switch in Search engines is on, as it is by default. Turn it off to publish your pages without a canonical address: a page then has one only when its Custom Canonical is on. The change reaches your site at your next publish.

Redirect a page (Custom Redirect)#

A redirect sends anyone who opens a TeleportHQ page to another address. Use it when you've replaced a page, so old links and Google rankings carry over.

1. In Page SEO Settings, turn on Custom Redirect.
2. Next to Redirect Mode, choose Page to send visitors to another page in your project, or URL to send them to any web address.
3. Choose the type: 301 - Permanent (the page moved for good, the usual choice) or 302 - Temporary (the page will come back).
4. Pick the page under Select page..., or type the address, for example https://sweetcrumbs.com/new-menu.
5. Publish your site.

Manage all redirects in one place (Custom Redirects)#

TeleportHQ lists every redirect, including the ones set on pages, under Custom Redirects in Search engines. Here you can also redirect addresses that no longer have a page, like an old /old-menu link.

1. Click the Project settings cog at the bottom of the left sidebar, then SEO & social → Search engines.

2. Scroll to Custom Redirects and click Add Redirect. A new row appears.

   

3. Under From, choose Page and pick a page, or choose URL and type the old path, for example /old-menu.
4. Under Type, choose 301 - Permanent or 302 - Temporary.
5. Under To, choose Page and pick a page, or URL and type the new address.
6. Publish your site.

The Search engines settings save on their own. A redirect row is saved once both From and To are filled in; until then, it reads "Fill in both addresses to save this redirect." A row that isn't saved yet doesn't hold back your other changes in Search engines. To delete a redirect, click the × (tooltip Remove redirect) at the end of its row.

Redirects TeleportHQ adds for you#

• A new home page keeps its old address. When you make a page the home page, TeleportHQ first says what changes, then adds a 301 - Permanent redirect from the page's old address to /. In the page's Page SEO Settings, under URL, a note reads, for example, "Was /about — visitors who open it are sent here." See How to choose which page is your homepage.
• Imported articles keep their old addresses. When a Blog or Help Center import file lists an article's old addresses, TeleportHQ adds a permanent redirect for each one.

Check that it worked#

After publishing, open the old address in a private browser window. For a redirect, you land on the new address. For No Index, open yoursite.com/sitemap.xml and check that the page isn't listed. On a site with a Blog or Help Center, your pages are in yoursite.com/sitemap-pages.xml.

Troubleshooting#

"Custom redirect is not available for the homepage." or "…for the fallback page." Your homepage and your 404 page can't redirect. To move your homepage, set a different page as the homepage first. See How to choose which page is your homepage.

"Please enter a valid URL (e.g., https://example.com/page)" The Custom Canonical address isn't a full web address. Type it with https:// and your domain.

"Redirect source must be a relative path starting with / (e.g. /old-page). This redirect is not saved until it is fixed." In Custom Redirects, a From address must be a path on your own site, like /old-page, not a full web address.

"These pages redirect to each other in a loop. This redirect is not saved until the loop is broken." or "Circular redirect detected: …" Your redirects send visitors in a loop, for example page A to page B and page B back to page A. Custom Redirects shows the first message under each row of the loop, and Page SEO Settings shows the second. Change or remove one of the redirects. TeleportHQ doesn't save a loop.

A redirect row disappeared A row with an empty From or To isn't saved ("Fill in both addresses to save this redirect."), so it's gone when you reopen Search engines. Fill in both.

"Option no longer available" The page picked in a redirect was deleted. Pick another page or remove the row.

Good to know#

• Redirects show in both places. A redirect you set in Page SEO Settings appears under Custom Redirects, and the other way around.
• Changed a page's URL? A redirect whose From is set to Page follows the page to its new address. To keep the old address working, add a redirect with From set to URL and the old path. See How to change a page's URL and create nested URLs.
• Staging addresses are always kept out of search engines. See How to test changes on a staging site before going live.
• With a custom domain, search engines list only your domain: your TeleportHQ address sends visitors there and asks search engines not to list it. See How to connect your own domain.
• Blog posts have their own No Index, Custom Canonical and Custom Redirect options. See How to set SEO for a blog post.
• Links that lead nowhere are listed in the editor's Issues window. See How to find and fix broken links on your site.