I'm a new author and my posts are being served with noindex and nofollow, so Google can't index them. When I view the page source of my articles, I see:
<meta name="author-trust" content="0">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
<meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
I understand DEV applies this automatically to new/low-trust accounts as spam protection, and I don't think my posts are spam — they're original, long-form technical articles. My question is: what specifically can I do to raise my author-trust score so the noindex/nofollow tags are removed? And once trust increases, does the tag get lifted from my existing posts retroactively, or only from new ones?
Account: James Sanderson
Example posts:
- https://dev.to/jam-techcirkle/building-a-denial-prediction-pipeline-on-835837-claims-data-5ckh
- https://dev.to/jam-techcirkle/building-ai-driven-wealth-software-aggregation-rag-and-custodial-integration-14f4
This is a platform/account question rather than a coding one. For context: the account is new, the articles are original technical write-ups (AI/ML engineering, RAG, fintech/healthcare software architecture), and they were published through the DEV (Forem) API rather than the web editor — flagging that in case API-published posts from a new account get extra scrutiny.
That my published articles would be indexable by search engines (standard index, follow), like normal DEV posts.
Every one of my posts carries author-trust: 0 plus robots: noindex and robots: nofollow in the HTML head, so search engines are instructed not to index them or follow their links.
- Confirmed the tags are injected server-side by DEV (they're not in my article content), so I understand I can't remove them by editing the posts.
- Read that author-trust is tied to account signals — account age, profile completeness, and genuine community engagement.
- I'm working on the legitimate levers: completing my profile (avatar, bio, linked accounts), engaging authentically with other posts, and continuing to publish quality technical content. I want to make sure I'm doing the right things rather than anything that looks like gaming the system.
No error messages — the posts publish and render fine. The only "issue" is the automatic noindex/nofollow + author-trust: 0 on an account I believe was caught by the automated filter. I'd appreciate any guidance on raising trust, or a manual review of the account if it was flagged in error.
Thanks so much for your help!
— James Sanderson
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