I use Storymaps on a regular basis. Stories that I create are embedded into my website, which is the primary place I would like to show them. And this is the place I would like my audience to direct. However, Google search engine does indexing for both URLs of the same publication - the one on my website and the one on the arcgis.com server. Meaning, the audience of my website while searching for my project receives the arcgis.com link first instead of my project's website. This is not only adverse to my project - it is also very confusing for the audience as they end up not on the website they expect to.
I am very happy with the tools that the ArcGIS license offers. But having no possibility to use "noindex" and "nofollow" tags devalues all the advantages it could offer (paradoxically enough - free license users have this feature by default).
In previous discussions, I could see a continuous demand from other community members about the same feature (which is available on almost any other platform of the same kind) and no legible answer from the ArcGIS platform why it can't be implemented.
So, I have a direct practical question in this regard. How can I hide my storymaps/experience apps from Google search indexing but still keep them publicly available?
No solution, but there is an "Idea" about this issue, which you could support
Solved: Is there a way to prevent search engine indexing f... - Esri Community
Yes, I have already voted for this a while ago. Retired, indeed...
my "signature" .... not the idea
Are you using ArcGIS Online or Portal?
If the latter, you may be able to selectively place a robots.txt file or alter the root storymaps page to include a noindex item in the <meta> tag.
If the former, you may simply be out of luck, as I don't believe you'd have the necessary access to make those sorts of changes in AGOL.
I am using ArcGIS online. And I don't really need access to root folders or source code in this case. Ideally, that could be one of the publishing options.
Good news! Last week, ArcGIS StoryMaps gained the ability to opt-out of search engine registration. For more information, see What’s new in ArcGIS StoryMaps (August 2023) (esri.com).