If you want to temporarily unpublish your Knowledge Commons site—without deleting it—you can adjust your site’s privacy settings in the WordPress dashboard. These settings control who can view your site and whether search engines can index its content.
1. Open Your WordPress Dashboard
- Log in to Knowledge Commons.
- Navigate to your site’s WordPress admin area by either:
- Hovering over My Sites in the top toolbar → click Dashboard, or
- Typing your site’s URL followed by /wp-admin (e.g., https://mysitename.hcommons.org/wp-admin)
2. Go to the Reading Settings
- In the left-hand admin menu, click Settings.
- From the submenu that appears, select Reading.
This page controls how your site displays content and how visible it is to the public.
3. Adjust Your Site Visibility
Scroll down until you find the Site Visibility section. You’ll see several radio button options for who can view your site:
Visibility Options
- Public and allow search engines to index this site
Your site is fully public and discoverable on Google and other search engines. - Public but discourage search engines from indexing this site
Your site is public, but you prefer it not to appear in search results.
(Search engines may or may not honor this request.) - Visible only to registered users of this network
Only logged-in Knowledge Commons members can view your site. - Visible only to administrators of this site
Only site administrators (usually just you) can see the site.
This option is best for unpublishing your site without deleting content.
Visibility Options
To make your site visible only to you, select: Visible only to administrators of this site
You can return later and switch back to a public setting when you’re ready to publish again.
4. Save Your Changes
After selecting your preferred visibility option:
- Scroll to the bottom of the page.
- Click Save Changes.
Your site’s privacy settings will update immediately.