[wp-meta] [Making WordPress.org] #5835: (re)instate "noindex" mode on the Patterns Directory

[Making WordPress.org]

#5835: (re)instate "noindex" mode on the Patterns Directory
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 Reporter:  jonoaldersonwp  |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect          |     Status:  new
 Priority:  high            |  Milestone:
Component:  General         |   Keywords:  seo performance
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 The Patterns Directory (https://wordpress.org/patterns/) has, until now,
 used a `noindex` directive to prevent search indexes from indexing it.
 Since it was launched, this directive has been removed.

 It's my strong recommendation that we reintroduce the `noindex` directive,
 until site can be made to be more performant.

 == Performance issues

 The directory homepage loads upwards of 23mb (10mb+ 'over the wire'), in a
 series of profoundly expensive stages of (re)loading pages within iframes,
 which in turn (re)load many of the same assets.

 Individual pattern pages behave similarly (many loading 8mb+ / 4mb+ 'over
 the wire'), as well as exhibiting many performance anti-patterns. The
 sheer data transfer volume is a large issue, but not the only one - the
 entire loading cascade of this content is problematic.

 Aside from being an enormous UX (and reputation/branding; not to mention
 the related accessibility challenges) issue, this may have a serious
 impact on our Core Web Vitals metrics; potentially leading to harm side-
 wide harm to our SEO.

 Hopefully, we can spare some resources to optimize performance in the
 long-term (I'll begin documenting some of the challenges and options;
 though frankly, our options are heavily constrained by the core approach).

 In the short term, we should reinstate the meta robots `noindex`
 directive.

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Ticket URL: <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/5835>
Making WordPress.org <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/>
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