Paywalled Content: How to Protect Premium Articles and Still Be Found in Search

Most of your new readers arrive from Google. Many of the articles they land on are the ones you want them to pay or sign up for. That puts two goals in tension: search engines need to understand the page, and readers who haven't signed up shouldn't get the article for free.

Google has guidelines for exactly this situation. This post explains what they ask for, where many paywalls fall short, and how UniSignIn's Protected Content keeps premium articles locked while still turning search visitors into registered readers and subscribers.

What Google Means by Paywalled Content

Google calls articles that readers can only fully open after signing up or paying "subscription and paywalled content". Google is happy to show these articles in Search and Google News. It just needs to know that the article is paywalled.

The reason is cloaking. If Google sees one version of a page and readers see a shorter one with a wall over it, the difference could look like a site trying to trick search engines. To avoid that, Google asks publishers to add a small piece of structured data to paywalled pages. It says two things:

• The article is not free to read.
• Which part of the page is behind the wall.

With this markup, Google treats the wall as a normal business model, not a trick. The article stays eligible for Search and News, and its headline and opening paragraphs can appear in results like any other page.

Letting Readers Sample Your Content

Google also encourages publishers to let readers try their content before asking for anything. It describes two common ways to do it:

• Lead-in: everyone can read the headline and the first paragraphs, then the wall appears.
• Metering: readers get a number of free articles each month before the wall appears. See What Is a Metered Paywall?.

How much to give away is your decision. A lead-in that tells the reader what the story is about, and why it is worth finishing, does most of the selling.

Where Many Paywalls Fall Short

The simplest way to build a paywall is to send the whole article to the browser and cover the end of it with a wall. It is quick to set up, but the full text is still in the page:

• Readers can get around it. Reader mode, turning off scripts, or viewing the page source is often enough to read the whole article.
• Copies spread. Anything that can read the page, including scrapers and AI crawlers, gets the full article without paying.
• Your most valuable articles leak first. The pieces worth paying for are the ones people most want to copy.

For a registration wall on everyday articles, this may be acceptable. For premium journalism, analysis or exclusives, the text should not leave your server until the reader has access.

How UniSignIn Protected Content Works

Protected Content keeps the rest of the article on your own website until a reader is allowed to see it. It works with UniSignIn's Access Wall in two modes: ask readers to register, or ask them to subscribe.

1. A reader opens the article. The page contains only the opening paragraphs and Google's paywalled content markup.
2. The Access Wall appears where the article continues. The reader can register or subscribe without leaving the page.
3. Once the reader has access, the rest of the article appears in place. It loads from your website, checked for that reader and that article. There is no reload and no redirect, so the reader keeps reading where they stopped.
4. Registered readers and subscribers skip the wall. When they come back, the full article appears for them straight away.

The full text never sits in the page for readers who don't have access, and UniSignIn never stores or sees your articles. They stay on your site.

Why It Helps You Grow Your Audience

Search visitors are usually first-time readers. They don't know your brand yet, and most won't come back on their own. Protected Content turns that moment into an opportunity:

• The preview does the selling. Readers arriving from Google see the headline and opening paragraphs, which is enough to know whether they want the rest.
• Signing up is the only way to finish the article. With the text kept on your server, there is no shortcut around the wall.
• Reading continues in the same page. Readers who sign up see the rest of the article straight away, so fewer of them drop off between signing up and reading.
• Every sign-up is a reader you can reach again. A registered reader can get your newsletters, be recognised on every device and be offered a subscription later. See Registration Wall vs. Paywall for when to ask for each.

Start with a registration wall on your best articles to grow your audience, then ask your most engaged registered readers to subscribe.

What Search Engines See

Google sees the same page as an anonymous reader: the headline, the opening paragraphs and the markup that says the rest is paywalled. Those are indexed, and the article can rank and appear in Google News.

The rest of the article is not indexed, because it is never in the page. That is a deliberate trade-off. Keep the articles that bring in search traffic free, and protect the ones that are worth paying or signing up for. A clear headline and a strong first two paragraphs matter more than ever for protected articles.

On WordPress

The UniSignIn WordPress plugin does all of this for you. Tick Protected on a post, and the plugin:

• shows only the opening paragraphs to readers without access
• adds Google's paywalled content markup to the page
• keeps the rest out of the page and your feeds
• shows the rest of the post once the Access Wall lets the reader in

Editors keep seeing the whole post. On other platforms, Protected Content needs one small addition on your server: see the setup guide.

Common Mistakes

Protecting everything. If every article is behind a wall, search visitors have nothing to sample. Keep news and evergreen guides free, and protect the articles readers value most.

Weak openings. The preview is all a new reader sees. Write the first paragraphs to make the reader want the rest.

Leaving out the markup. Without Google's paywalled content markup, a paywalled page can look like cloaking. The WordPress plugin adds it for you.

Showing the wall to subscribers. Readers who already have access should never see it. See Stop Showing Subscription Offers to Your Subscribers.

Getting Started

1. Choose the articles you want readers to register or subscribe for.
2. Set up an Access Wall that asks readers to register or subscribe.
3. Turn on Protected Content, or tick Protected on posts with the WordPress plugin.
4. Watch sign-ups from protected articles, and adjust which articles you protect.

Read more about the Paywall, or contact us to get started.