Site (Subdomain) Removal from Webmaster Tools
-
We have two subdomains that have been verified in Google Webmaster Tools. These subdomains were used by 3rd parties which we no longer have an affiliation with (the subdomains no longer serve a purpose).
We have been receiving an error message from Google: "Googlebot can't access your site. Over the last 24 hours, Googlebot encountered 1 errors while attempting to retrieve DNS information for your site. The overall error rate for DNS queries for your site is 100.00%". I originally investigated using Webmaster Tools' URL Removal Tool to remove the subdomain, but there are no indexed pages. Is this a case of simply 'deleting' the site from the Manage Site tab in the Webmaster Tools interface?
-
If the site has been already removed by Google then you're fine but i would still put a robots.txt block on it, since you don't know who turned it off. They probably pointed it away from your subdomain in their domain registrar account, which means they could repoint it again anytime if they wanted and the site would resolve again and get indexed again.
-
Hi Cary
From what you say it suggests to me the subdomains have gone / dead / been removed.
Therefore you only need to remove it from WMT and ensure only the correct people have access to your WMT / GA etc as I outlined above.
All the best
Nigel
-
Hi nigel555,
I was thinking along these lines, but I was concerned it was too simplistic of an approach. I was sure I was missing something.
How do you feel about the approach outlined above by Irving?
-
Thanks for the help Irving.
So you think we should block the subdomains with robots.txt files and then use the URL removal tool to remove the "sites" from Google's index.
I have done a site: search looking for indexed URLs from the subdomains, but the searches were empty. Do you think I should still use the URL removal tool?
-
Hi Cary, you are getting that message as the subdomain cannot be reached by Google.
On the Google Webmaster 'Home page' click the dropdown on the right - there should be 3 options.
First click 'Add or remove users' to ensure and deal with users you no longer want.
Then click 'Delete site' to remove the subdomain (make sure you delete the right one!)
Other things you may want to consider:
Check your main site has the right users accessing it.
Did you have Google Analytics on the subdomians - that data will still be there. You may want to consider who has access to that in future.
Check if the affiliates had any access to email, documents, regular reports or other tool you may want to lock down on.
All the best
Nigel
-
it sounds like they are no longer resolving? since they are subdomains to your site i would block them with robots.txt (making sure you don't accidentally block your main site) and request removal in WMT and get them both completely deindexed.
I would keep them verified in WMT so that you can see there is nothing being done with them by a third party, because you are responsible for your subdomain content since it's technically under your control.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Similar pages on a site
Hi I think it was at BrightonSEO where PI DataMetrics were talking about similar pages on a website can cause rankings to drop for your main page. This has got me thinking. if we have a category about jumpers so: example.com/jumpers but then our blog has a category about jumpers, where we write all about jumpers etc which creates a category page example.com/blog/category/jumpers, so these blog category pages have no index put on them to stop them ranking in Google? Thanks in Advance for any tips. Andy
Technical SEO | | Andy-Halliday1 -
I have consolidated my subdomains into subfolders; should i remove the subdomains also?
Hi, I have consolidated my website's many sub-domains into sub-folders. We had ~20 sub-domains. The sub-domains and the root domain shared the same code-base and sub-domain specific features were controlled using Apache's SetEnv directive in the httpd.conf includes. Now they are consolidated. I have redirected all of the sub-domains to the relevant sub-folder; so http://sub1.mysite.com now 301 redirects to http://www.mysite.com/sub1.The redirects happen in the htaccess file and all sub-domains and the root are still pointing to the same code-base. However, the Moz campaign tracker still occasionally tells me that i have optimisation opportunities at http://sub1.mysite.com and in both Bing and Google webmaster tools traffic to those sub-domains is mentioned. Should i delete the subdomains? Cheers
Technical SEO | | McCaldin0 -
Partner Sites
Hi All, Within our company we have a media group that publishes magazines and videos, the sites have footers that link to our shopping site, one of them has 118,459 links to one URL, domain authority 23, and the other 17,726 to seven URLs, domain authority 52, (there are some articles which link organically). My question is are these links because they're from identifiable companies with the same ownership worth keeping or are they detrimental? The site being linked to has a DA of 39 Cheers Stew
Technical SEO | | StewMcG0 -
Internal Ads on A Site
We serve ads on our site using a sub-domain. All ads use a re-direct from ads.domain before redirecting users to the proper, normal, internal url. Most the content on our home page is ad block driven. Is it possible and does it make sense to enter the sub-domain as url parameter in Google Webmaster tools, letting Google know that this is something to be ignored. Many thanks
Technical SEO | | CeeC-Blogger0 -
Strange Webmaster Tools Crawl Report
Up until recently I had robots.txt blocking the indexing of my pdf files which are all manuals for products we sell. I changed this last week to allow indexing of those files and now my webmaster tools crawl report is listing all my pdfs as not founds. What is really strange is that Webmaster Tools is listing an incorrect link structure: "domain.com/file.pdf" instead of "domain.com/manuals/file.pdf" Why is google indexing these particular pages incorrectly? My robots.txt has nothing else in it besides a disallow for an entirely different folder on my server and my htaccess is not redirecting anything in regards to my manuals folder either. Even in the case of outside links present in the crawl report supposedly linking to this 404 file when I visit these 3rd party pages they have the correct link structure. Hope someone can help because right now my not founds are up in the 500s and that can't be good 🙂 Thanks is advance!
Technical SEO | | Virage0 -
Subdomains
Hello Seo Experts, Can any one help me with this issue... I do have issues with my subdomains, My site name is http://www.bharatdesi.com, should I have subdomain http://www.bharatdesi.com/hyderabad this way or hyderabad.bharatdesi.com. Please any can answer my question, which way I have to organize my subdomains... and also give me some examples.. Thank you.
Technical SEO | | Vinss0 -
Google Webmaster tools vs SeoMOZ Crawl Diagnostics
Hi Guys I was just looking over my weekly report and crawl diagnostics. What I've noticed is that the data gathered on SeoMoz is different from Google Webmaster diagnostics. The number of errors, in particular duplicate page titles, content and pages not found is much higher that what google webmaster tools is represents. I'm a bit confused and don't know which data is more accurate. Please Help
Technical SEO | | Tolod0 -
Webmaster Tools 404 Errors Pages Never Created
Recently, 196 404 errors appeared in my WMT account for pages that were never created on my site. Question: Any thoughts on how they got there (i.e. WMT bug, tactic by competitor)? Question: Thoughts on impact if any? Question: Thoughts on resolution?
Technical SEO | | Gyi0