How can I resolve the issue with deindexing a subdomain and generating a sitemap in Webflow?
TL;DR
- Disable subdomain indexing in Webflow SEO settings and use meta noindex tags or robots.txt to block crawling.
- Remove indexed URLs via Google Search Console and update your sitemap by excluding pages in Webflow and republishing the site.
If you're trying to deindex a subdomain in Webflow and ensure your sitemap is configured correctly, follow these steps to manage SEO settings and sitemap generation.
1. Prevent Indexing of the Subdomain
- Go to Project Settings for the site hosted on the subdomain.
- Click SEO tab.
- Scroll to the SEO Settings section and enable "Disable Webflow subdomain indexing (noindex)”.
- This disables indexing for the Webflow.io subdomain version of your site.
- If your subdomain is mapped to a custom domain (e.g., blog.example.com), you must still:
- Add a robots meta tag with
noindexto the<head>via Page Settings or a global embed. - Alternatively, use robots.txt.
2. Add Rules to robots.txt
- Still under the SEO tab, scroll to the robots.txt field.
- Add a line like:
User-agent: *Disallow: /(This blocks all URLs from being crawled, use cautiously)- To target only the subdomain, you’ll need to manage this server-side, outside of Webflow, or isolate content under a folder and block just that path (e.g.,
Disallow: /blog/).
3. Remove Subdomain URLs from Google Index
- Go to Google Search Console > Removals tool.
- Enter the full subdomain URL or directory path you want to remove from indexing.
- Submit a temporary removal and consider also requesting deindexing via the URL Inspection Tool.
4. Manage Your Sitemap in Webflow
- Webflow automatically generates a sitemap (e.g.,
yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml) and includes all published pages. - If you want to exclude a page, go to that Page’s Settings, scroll to SEO Settings, and enable “Exclude this page from site search results” and/or "Exclude this page from sitemap".
- After excluding necessary pages, republish your site to update the sitemap.
5. Regenerate Sitemap and Resubmit to Google
- After adjusting all settings, republish your Webflow site.
- Copy the sitemap URL (
/sitemap.xml) and resubmit it via Google Search Console under Index > Sitemaps.
Summary
To deindex a subdomain in Webflow, disable Webflow.io subdomain indexing, control crawl and index directives via meta tags or robots.txt, and remove existing indexed URLs using Google Search Console. To update your sitemap, exclude pages via page settings and republish your website.