We've recently fixed the logic behind our Sections dashboard. We noticed that if you shared a specific article (e.g., gave somebody the direct URL to a post), the content would always be available — even if the post was located in a private section.
The idea has always been to keep the content behind private sections, well, truly private, and only available to the eyes of logged-in administrators. This ensures that you have content that's only visible to your editorial team or company staff, and that it's not crawled or indexed by Google.
We want you to be aware of the logic behind each section type so it's absolutely clear. Here's how you can use the different options to your advantage:
- Public: The section is open to everyone who visits your site and shows up in your site's navigation menu. The articles within this section are fully public.
- Private: The section is only visible to administrators and will not show up in your site's navigation menu. The articles within this section will 404 for anyone that's not logged in with an administrator account.
- Unlisted: The section is only accessible by URL and will not show up in your site's navigation menu. The articles within this section will be visible to the public if they have the links to those specific posts. Those articles will also still be crawlable by Search Engines.
Update: You now have the option to decide whether the content in a specific section should be included in or hidden from the sitemap.
To enable this feature, simply click on "Edit Section" and select "Hide from search engines."
