The Simple Membership plugin can be integrated with the Google First Click Free feature so Googlebot can index your protected content. This allows you to get visitors to your protected page directly from Google search.
First Click Free
You should read this article from Google’s site to understand the First Click Free feature.
Things to Keep in Mind
- When you use this feature a visitor (non-member) can see your protected content if they click on a link from Google’s search result.
- All visitors who click a Google search result to arrive at your webpage should be allowed to see the full text of the content they’re trying to access.
- The page displayed to all users who visit from Google must be identical to the content that is shown to Googlebot.
- After you enable this feature, you need to wait a few days for Google to index your protected pages.
- Googlebot may not index all your protected pages (just like how Googlebot may not index all your normal webpages).
Installing the Addon
- Click on the “Add New” menu under the plugins interface.
- Go to the “Uploader” tab and upload the swpm-google-first-click-free.zip file
- Hit the “Install Now” button and then activate the addon
Using the Addon
After you install the addon, go to the following settings interface:
Simple Membership -> Settings -> Addon Settings
Check the “Enable First Click Free” option and save the settings.
You can optionally set a message that you want to show to visitors who are viewing the protected content because of the first click free feature.
Now, when a visitor clicks on a Google search result of your page and lands on your protected article, the plugin will display the full content of the protected article to this visitor. If the visitor clicks on another link on your site, the normal protection rule will apply (meaning the visitor will need to become a member before he can see more protected content).
Get the First Click Free Addon
This addon is no longer available.