The two settings answer different questions
Blogger gives a blog owner two kinds of controls that are easy to confuse. One decides who may read the blog. The other affects whether the blog is offered to search engines. They are not interchangeable, and changing the second does not change the first.
Blogger’s Reader access setting offers Public, Private to authors and Custom readers; a blog is public by default. Source
That default matters. A new or long-running blog is readable by anyone with the address unless the owner has deliberately changed the Reader access setting. If your only action has been to reduce search visibility, the reading audience has not been narrowed at all.
Why a search-visibility preference is not access control
A search preference changes how a blog is presented to search engines. It does not check who is asking for the page. Someone who already has the blog address, a bookmarked link, an email link or a link from another site can still reach a public blog. That is why the owner task here is an access audit, not a visibility tweak.
Two limits are worth stating plainly:
- A hidden blog is not a deleted blog. Reducing search visibility leaves the content, the blog and its settings in place.
- You cannot guarantee what copies exist elsewhere. Search caches, saved pages, screenshots and third-party embeds are outside the blog’s settings, and this guide makes no blanket promise about removing them.
If the goal is that only certain people can read the blog, the Reader access setting is the control to audit. If the goal is that the blog should not appear in search results, that is a separate preference with separate limits.
Owner audit: reader access and pending invitations
Work through these checks in order. Each one asks a question the settings can actually answer.
| Check | Question to answer | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Current Reader access | Is the blog set to Public, Private to authors or Custom readers? | Public means anyone with the address can read it |
| 2. Intended audience | Who should be able to read the blog now? | The setting should match the answer, not the default |
| 3. Custom readers list | Who is on the custom readers list? | Each listed reader is an intended audience member |
| 4. Pending invitations | Which reader invitations have not been accepted? | An open invitation is an unresolved access decision |
| 5. Administrators and authors | Who holds administrator or author membership? | Author permission is a different role from reader access |
| 6. Search-visibility preference | What did you change, and what did you expect it to do? | It does not narrow the reading audience |
| 7. Content still live | Is the blog still published? | A hidden blog is not a deleted blog |
Blogger separately lists custom readers, pending reader invitations, and administrator or author membership, so a reader audience is not the same as author permission. Source
That separation is the reason checks 3, 4 and 5 are listed apart. A reader audience is not the same as author permission, and an invitation that has not been accepted is still a pending decision the owner should resolve.
Step-by-step: run the audit
- Open the blog’s Reader access setting and record the current option: Public, Private to authors or Custom readers.
- Write down who should be able to read the blog. If the answer is “only specific people,” the public default is not the right state.
- Review the custom readers list against that intended audience. Remove or adjust entries only after you have decided what the audience should be.
- Review pending reader invitations. Decide for each one whether it should remain open, and record the decision.
- Review administrator and author membership separately. Do not treat a reader entry as author permission or the reverse.
- Note any search-visibility change you have made. Label it as a visibility preference, not as access control.
- Decide what happens to the content itself. If the intent was to remove the blog, changing visibility is not that step; if the intent was to narrow readers, the access setting is.
- Re-check the settings after any change, and keep a short record of what you changed and when.
Common failure paths
| Situation | What went wrong | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| Blog is still readable by people with the link | Only search visibility was changed | Audit Reader access and set the intended audience |
| A reader can do more than read | Reader access was confused with author membership | Review administrator and author membership separately |
| Old invitations are still open | Pending reader invitations were never reviewed | Resolve each pending invitation deliberately |
| Owner believes the blog is gone | Visibility was treated as deletion | Treat the blog as still published until the content itself is addressed |
| Owner expects cached copies to vanish | Assumed a setting controls third-party copies | Accept that copies elsewhere are outside the blog’s settings |
Where a username check fits, and where it does not
If your audit involves a public username you already know about, a username lookup can show whether that handle appears on public platforms. TraceSeek covers 3,000+ platforms, and the first scan is free with no registration or login required. The product states a scan time of 20-30 seconds; that is a product statement, not an independent measurement.
Be clear about the boundary. A public username match is a lead, not proof of ownership, and a username search is not a complete account inventory. TraceSeek cannot operate Blogger account settings, cannot access private accounts and cannot verify a real identity. It is not a tool for restricting reader access, and it is not a guaranteed erasure service. Use it only as a side check on public handles, not as a substitute for the Blogger audit above.
What to record when you finish
A short record keeps the audit honest across future changes:
- The Reader access option in place, with the date you checked it.
- The intended audience and who is on the custom readers list.
- Pending reader invitations and the decision made for each.
- Administrators and authors, listed separately from readers.
- Any search-visibility preference, labelled as visibility rather than access control.
- Whether the blog content itself is still published.
If the record shows that the only change was a search-visibility preference, the access question is still open. That is the gap this audit exists to close.