Do Collection List Publish Settings Override Collection Item Publish Settings

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1

We have Collections Lists where the Publish settings are toggled to off. However, with Webflow’s latest enhancement to allow individual Collection Items to be excluded from sitemap indexing, all of the CMS items publish settings are toggled on.

I assume if the Collection List settings are toggled to off then the items won’t be indexed even if they are toggled as on. But I don’t feel good about that assumption. I’ve reached out to Webflow but wasn’t sure if anyone had determined the answer to this one way or another.

thanks.

2

They’re different things. Currently;

  • If the collection page itself is not published then there are zero collection pages, thus no need for a META noindex, and no content in the sitemap. You’d switch this off when you literally do not want the pages to exist on your site at all.
  • If the collection page is published then ALL pages are published live on the site, and exist in the sitemap EXCEPT
    • You now have granular control at the item level, within the CMS, and can individually exclude CMS items from the sitemap and from indexing ( META noindex ).
3

Adding response from Webflow in case it’s helpful for anyone else.

In this case, as the Collection Template page is not published, these Collection Template pages will not be indexed or included in your sitemap.

The Sitemap indexing toggle for individual Collections items is only relevant in cases where the associated Collection template is published.