The Search & AI page controls how visible your site is to search engines (like Google) and to AI assistants and crawlers (like ChatGPT or Claude). You'll find it under Settings → Search & AI.
A note on what this can and can't do: these settings are instructions that reputable search engines and AI companies follow. They are not a lock on your content — anything published on your public website can still be viewed by people and by tools that ignore the rules. For content that must stay private, don't publish it publicly.
Indexing Level
The main control is a four-level setting:
- No Indexing — asks search engines and AI to skip your site entirely. Your site won't appear in Google results or AI answers. Use this for sites that aren't ready to launch or congregations that prefer to stay word-of-mouth.
- Some Indexing — search engines can index your site normally, but AI crawlers are asked to stay out completely.
- Most Indexing (the default) — full search indexing. AI assistants can learn basic details about your church (name, location, service info) but are kept away from your sermon and resource library.
- Full Indexing — full search indexing and full AI access, including sermons and resources. Choose this if you want your teaching to be discoverable through AI assistants.
Changes take effect automatically within a few minutes of publishing.
Hiding specific pages
Sometimes you want the site indexed but a few things kept quiet. Two lists let you exclude individual pages, resources, events, or people:
- Hide from Search Engines — the selected items won't appear in search results and are removed from your sitemap.
- Hide from AI — the selected items are blocked for AI crawlers, regardless of the indexing level.
Because these are references (not web addresses), they keep working even if you later rename the page's URL.
Hide Staff Directory from Search
Staff pages can include names, emails, and phone numbers. Turning this on keeps all individual staff pages out of search engines and AI results — useful for congregations with safeguarding or privacy concerns. It's one switch for the whole directory; to hide just one person, use the lists above.
Site verification codes
When you set up Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools, they'll ask you to verify ownership with a meta tag. Paste the code (the content value from the tag they give you) into the matching field here and publish — no code changes needed.
About for AI
A 2–3 sentence plain-language description of your church, in your own words. When AI assistants look up who you are, this is the answer you've written rather than one assembled from scraps. It's only shared at the Most and Full levels.
A good one mentions who you are, where you are, and what someone visiting should know:
Grace Community Church is a non-denominational congregation in Springfield, Ohio. We meet Sundays at 9 and 11 AM, and our sermon library is available free online.