Please help :) Troubles getting 3 types of content de-indexed
-
Hi there,
I know that it takes time and I have already submitted a URL removal request 3-4 months ago.
But I would really appreciate some kind advice on this topic.Thank you in advance to everyone who contributes!
1) De-indexing archives
Google had indexed all my:
/tag/
/authorname/
archives.I have set them as no-index a few months ago but they still appear in search engine.
Is there anything I can do to speed up this de-indexing?2) De-index /plugins/ folder in wordpress site
They have also indexed all my /plugins/ folder. So I have added a disallow /plugin/ in my robots.txt 3-4 months ago, but /plugins/ still appear in search engine.
What can I do to get the /plugins/ folder de-indexed?
Is my disallow /plugins/ in robots.txt making it worse because google has already indexed it and not it can't access the folder? How do you solve this?3) De-index a subdomain
I had created a subdomain containing adult content, and have it completely deleted it from my cpanel 3months ago, but it still appears in search engines.
Anything else I can do to get it de-indexed?
Thank you in advance for your help!
-
Hi Fabio
If the content is gone when you visit your old URLs do you get a 404 code? You can plug the old URLs into urivalet.com to see what code is returned. If you do, then you're all set. If you don't, see if you can just upload a robots.txt file to that subdomain and block all search engines. Here's info on how to do that http://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html
-Dan
-
Hey Dan,there is no content.
The whole website has been deleted, but it still appears in search results.What should I do?
should I put back some content and then de-index it?Thanks!
fabio -
Hi There
You should ensure the content either;
- has meta noindex tags
- or is blocked with robots.txt
- or 404's or 410's (is missing)
And then use the URL removal tool again and see if that works.
-
Hey Dan thanks a lot for all your help!
There still is a problem though. A while ago I had created an adult subdomain: adult.mywebsite.comThen I completely deleted everything inside it (even though I noticed the subfolder is still in my account).
A few days ago, when I started this thread, I also created a GWMT account for adult.mywebsite.com and submitted a removal request for all those URLs (about 15).Now today when I check:
site:mywebsite.com
or
site.adult.mywebsite.comthe URLs still appear in search results.
When I check
cache:adult.mywebsite.comit sends me to a google 404 page:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?/complete/search?client=hp&hl=en&gs_rn=31&gs_ri=hp&cp=26&gs_id=s xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxSo I don't know what this means...
Does it mean google hasn't deindexed them?
How do I get them deindexed?
Is it possible google is having troubles de-indexing them because they have no content in them or something like that?What should I do to get rid of them?
Thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!!
Fabio -
Hey Fabio
Regarding #2 I'd give it a little bit more time. 301's take a little longer to drop out, so maybe check back in a week or two Technically the URL removal will mainly work if the content now 404's, is noindexed or blocked in robots.txt but with a redirdect you can do none of those, so you just have to wait for them to pick up on the redirects.
-Dan
-
Hi Dan,
1. Ok! I will.
2. When I click on the /go/ link in search results it redirects me to the affiliate website. I asked for the removal of /go/ a few days ago, but they (about 30 results) still appear in google when I search with the site:mywebsite.com trick.
What should I do about it? How can I get rid of them? They were created with the SimpleUrl plugin which I deleted about 3 months ago though.
3. Got it!
Thanks!
Fabio -
Hi There
1. For the flash file NoReflectLight.swf - I would do a removal request in WMT and maintain the blocking in robots.txt of /plugins/
2. When you do a URL removal in WMT the files need to either be blocked in robots.txt or have a noindex on them or 404. Doesn't that sort of link redirect to your affiliate product? In other words, if I were to try to visit /go/affiliate-product/ it would redirect to www.affiliateproductwebsite.com ?Or does /go/affiliate-product/ load it's on page on your site?
3. I would maintain the robots.txt bloking on /plugins/ - if no other files from there are indexed, they will not be in the future.
-Dan
-
Hey Dan,
thanks for the quick reply.I have gone trough site:mywebsite.com and I found that tags and categories disappeared but there still is some content that shouldn't be indexed like this:
mywebsite.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-flash-countdown/counter_cs3_v2_NoReflectLight.swf
and this:
mywebsite.com/go/affiliate-product/and I found this:Disallow: /wp-content/plugins/
in my robots.txtThing is that:
- I have deleted that wp-flash-countdown plugin at least 9 months ago
- I have manually removed all the urls with /go/ from GWMT and when I search for a cached version of them they are not there
- If I remove Disallow: /wp-content/plugins/ from my robots.txt won't that get all my plugins' pages to be indexed? So how do I make sure they are not indexed?
Thank you so much for your help!So far you have been the most helpful answerer in this forum.
-
Hey There
You want to look for this;
You can just do a cntrl-f (to search text in the source) and type in "noindex" and it should be present on the Tag archives.
-Dan
-
Hey Dan, thanks a lot for your help.
I have tried the cache trick on my home page and the cached version was about 4-5 days old.
I have then tried to cache:mywebsite/tag/ and it gives me a google 404 not found which I suppose is a good sign.
But if they have been de-indexed why do they appear in search results then?
I am not sure how to check the double SEO no-index in the source code though. How do I do that exactly? What should I look for after right-clicking -> source code?
Thanks for your help!
My MOZ account ends in two days so I may not be able to reply back next time.
-
Hi There
Should have explained better
if you type cache: in front of any web URL for example cache:apple.com you get;
And see the "cache" date? This is not the same as the crawl date, but it can give you a rough indication of how often Google might be looking at your pages.
So try that on some of your tag archives and if the cache date is say 4+ weeks ago maybe Google isn't looking at the site very often.
But it's odd they haven't been removed yet, especially with the URL removal tool - that tool usually only takes a day. Noindex tags usually only take a week or two.
Have you examined the source code to make sure it does in fact say "noindex" by the robots tag - or that there is not a conflicting duplicate robots noindex tag? Sometimes wordpress themes and plugins both try adding SEO tags and you can end up with duplicates.
-Dan
-
Hey Dan thanks,
well, so google had indexed all my tags, categories and stuff.The only things I had blocked in my robots was
/go/ for affiliate links
and
/plugins/ for pluginsso I did let google see that categories and archives pages were no-indexed.
I have also submit the removal request many months ago but I haven't quite understood what you say about the cache dates. What should I check?
Thanks for your help!
-
Hi There
For all these cases above, this may be a situation where you've BOTH blocked these in robots.txt and added noindex tags. You can not block the directories in robots.txt and get them deindexed, because Google can not then crawl the URLs to see the noindex tag.
If this is the case, I would remove any disallows to /tag/ etc in robots.txt, allow Google to crawl the URLs to see the nodinex tags - wait a few weeks and see what happens.
As far as the URL removal not working, make sure you have the correct subdomain registered - www or non-www etc for the URLs you want removed.
If neither one of those is the issue, please write back so I can try to help you more with that. Google should noindex the pages in a week or two under normal situations. The other thing is, check the cache date of the pages. If the cache dates are prior to the date you added the noindex, Google might not have seen the noindex directives yet.
-Dan
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
-
Our subdomain hosts content that can not be optimized (static videos) - should I de-index it?
We host static tours on a subdomain that points to the video tour host. I can not add meta or optimize any of these video pages and there are thousands. Should I de-index the entire subdomain? I am seeing errors for no meta, dup content etc in MOZ reporting. If yes, do I add the Disallow: /subdomain.root.nl/ to the primary domain's website/CMS or in DNS records ? Our web company is saying the no follow needs to be added in DNS but I feel like it should be added to the robots.txt file if SERP's are going to acknowledge the sub is no longer to be crawled and the primary is no longer to be penalized. Thank you so much in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | masonmorse0 -
Question about getting domain name re-indexed
I recently swapped my domain from www.davescomputers.com to www.computer-help.com . Originally www.computer-help.com was 301 re-directing to www.davescomputers.com ...however my long term goal is to eventually rebrand my business so I decided to utilize the other domain by swapping the main domain. Is consistant blogging the best way to get Google to re-index the entire website? My focus has been quality posts and sharing them with vairus social profiles I created.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DavidMolnar0 -
HTTPS pages - To meta no-index or not to meta no-index?
I am working on a client's site at the moment and I noticed that both HTTP and HTTPS versions of certain pages are indexed by Google and both show in the SERPS when you search for the content of these pages. I just wanted to get various opinions on whether HTTPS pages should have a meta no-index tag through an htaccess rule or whether they should be left as is.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Jamie.Stevens0 -
Interlinking from unique content page to limited content page
I have a page (page 1) with a lot of unique content which may rank for "Example for sale". On this page I Interlink to a page (page 2) with very limited unique content, but a page I believe is better for the user with anchor "See all Example for sale". In other words, the 1st page is more like a guide with items for sale mixed, whereas the 2nd page is purely a "for sale" page with almost no unique content, but very engaging for users. Questions: Is it risky that I interlink with "Example for sale" to a page with limited unique content, as I risk not being able to rank for either of these 2 pages Would it make sense to "no index, follow" page 2 as there is limited unique content, and is actually a page that exist across the web on other websites in different formats (it is real estate MLS listings), but I can still keep the "Example for sale" link leading to page 2 without risking losing ranking of page 1 for "Example for sale"keyword phrase I am basically trying to work out best solution to rank for "Keyword for sale" and dilemma is page 2 is best for users, but is not a very unique page and page 2 is very unique and OK for users but mixed up writing, pictures and more with properties for sale.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | khi50 -
CSS Display None / Hidden? Will I get in Trouble?
Hi, We're integrating over a dozen of videos to the site to be featured in a slideshow manner. A selected video will be featured in the center of the page, meanwhile the user can click on the small thumbnails and change it to something else. For the selected videos, there will be a transcript shown right next to the video. The trick is, we cant show the transcripts for all the videos at once, since that's just bad user experience - the page will be miles long. We want to hide the transcripts for the videos which are not shown either in a div - or in some other Google friendly manner. The question is? Is this Google - legit? Is there a chance of being flagged, since so much content will be hidden?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sophia1231 -
Page Indexed but not Cached
A section of pages on my site are indexed (I know because they appear in SERPs if I copy and paste a sentence from the content), however according to the text-only cached version of the page they are not being read by Google.Why are they indexed event hough it seems like Google is not reading them..... or is Google in fact reading this text even though it seems like they should not be?Thanks for your assistance.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | theLotter0 -
Duplicate Content Question
My understanding of duplicate content is that if two pages are identical, Google selects one for it's results... I have a client that is literally sharing content real-time with a partner...the page content is identical for both sites, and if you update one page, teh otehr is updated automatically. Obviously this is a clear cut case for canonical link tags, but I'm cuious about something: Both sites seem to show up in search results but for different keywords...I would think one domain would simply win out over the other, but Google seems to show both sites in results. Any idea why? Also, could this duplicate content issue be hurting visibility for both sites? In other words, can I expect a boost in rankings with the canonical tags in place? Or will rankings remain the same?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AmyLB0 -
Hit by Penguin, Can I move the content from the old site to a new domain and start again with the same content which is high quality
I need some advice please. My website got the unnatural links detected message and was hit by penguin.. hard. Can I move the content from the current domain to a new domain and start again or does the content need to be redone also. I will obviously turn of the old domain once its moved. The other option is to try and identify the bad links and change my anchor profile which is a hit and miss task in my opinion. Would it not be easier just to identify the good links pointing to the old domain and get those changed to point to the new domain with better anchors. thanks Warren
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | warren0071