Changing security/ visibility of your SB You site
The visibility of your SB You site, and who can access it, is a key security feature. Whether you want to make your site public for all to see, restrict it to the Stony Brook community, or keep it completely private while you're building it, this guide will show you how to easily adjust the security and visibility settings to fit your needs.
Understanding the different visibility settings
The different site visibility settings are:
- Allow search engines to index this site - When this option is enabled, you are giving search engines permission to read its content and follow its links and "index" it (store that content in their database). This allows your site to appear in search results, making it discoverable to a wider audience. If your goal is to have people find your site through search, you need this option turned on.
- Discourage search engines from indexing this site - This setting tells search engines not to index your content. While most reputable search engines like Google will respect this request, it's not a guarantee that your site will be completely hidden. This setting is typically used for specific purposes, such as:
- During development: If your site is a work in progress and you don't want an unfinished version showing up in search results.
- Private sites: If your site is for internal use, a personal blog for a select group, or contains sensitive information that should not be public.
Staging sites: When you have a test version of your site that mirrors your live site, you use this setting to prevent duplicate content from confusing search engines.
It's extremely important to make sure this setting is turned off once your site is live and ready for the public, otherwise, it will prevent your site from being found by anyone searching for your content.
- Only registered users of SB You: Web Publishing for You can view this site - This makes your site visible to individuals who have official affiliations with the university and have registered accounts to access various university systems and resources, and includes students, faculty, staff, researchers, guests, and other individuals.
- Only registered users of this site can view it - anyone added as a user to Users > All Users. - This makes your site visible to only users you have explicitly added to the site's Users list.
- Only admin users of this site can view it - Similar to the previous option, but restricts access to the site to only users listed as Admins of the site.
- Only someone who provides the following password can view this site - The site will be accessible to only those users that provide a password (set by you). Users that are added as registered users of the site (can be found in the Users tab under site Dashboard) will not be required to provide this password to access the site.
Changing the site security/ visibility settings
- Once you have logged in to SB You, go to your site's Dashboard.
- From the left navigation bar, hover on the Settings tab, and click on Reading.
- Scroll down to Site Visibility and select an appropriate option.
- Scroll down and click on Save Changes.