During development

As we develop a web site with WordPress we need to be sure that the Settings -> Reading: “Search Engine Visibility – Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is checked, so that the search engines do not crawl/index the web site making it visible online.

Going Live

It is important to uncheck the check box when the site goes live so that it becomes visible through the search engines. It can sometimes be too easy to forget to uncheck the option leaving the site outside of search engines reach.

The reminder

There are a few plugins to remind us that we need to uncheck the option. I use this plugin:
wordpress.org/plugins/discourage-search-engines-notifier

I adds an icon in the top admin bar like so:

Clicking the eye links to the Settings -> Reading page so that one can uncheck the option. The red color and the icon is a very good reminder that we need to make the site visible for the search engines.

Discourage Search Engines Notifier plugin is a small plugin and uses this code:

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Discourage Search Engines Notifier
Plugin URI: 
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/discourage-search-engines-notifier/
Version: 1.5
Author: <a href="http://ragu.cz">Ragu.cz</a>
Description: This plugin simply displays notification in admin bar that will 
show the state of Discourage Search Engines functionality.
Text Domain: discourage
License: GPLv3
*/

function discourage_engines_check_9879($bar)
{
if (get_option('blog_public') == 0) {
$icon = '"\f530"';
$icon_color = 'red';
} else {
$icon = '"\f177"';
$icon_color = 'green';
}
echo
'<style>#wpadminbar #wp-admin-bar-discourage_check_9879 .ab-icon:before 
{content: ' . $icon . '; color: ' . $icon_color . ';}</style>';
$bar->add_menu(array(
'id' => 'discourage_check_9879',
'title' => '<span class="ab-icon"></span>',
'href' => 'options-reading.php',
'meta' => array(
'target' => '_self',
'title' => 'Discourage search engines from indexing this site',
),
));
}

add_action('admin_bar_menu', 'discourage_engines_check_9879', 999);

One can just copy the functions code into the child theme functions file instead of using a plugin if one chooses to do so. The plugin gives an important reminder to uncheck the option so that the site becomes visible in the search engines. A feature that really should be built into WordPress core.