Should Blog Category Archive URLs be Set to "No-Index" in Wordpress?
-
It appears that Google Webmaster Tools is listing about 120 blog archives URLs in Google Index>Index Status that should not be listed. Our site map contains 650 pages, but Google shows 860.
Pages like:
<colgroup><col width="464"></colgroup>
| http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/category/manhattan-office-space |With Titles Like:
<colgroup><col width="454"></colgroup>
| Manhattan Office Space Archives - Metro Manhattan Office Space |Are listed when in the Rogerbot crawl report for the site.
How can we remove such pages from Google Webmaster Tools, Index Status? Our site map shows about 650 pages, yet Google show these extra pages. We would prefer that they not be indexed.
Note that these pages do not appear when we run a site:www.nyc-officespace-leader.com search.
The site has suffered a drop in ranking since May and we feel it prudent to keep Google from indexing useless URLs. Before May 650 pages showed on the Webmaster Tools Index status, and suddenly in early June when we upgraded the site the index grew by about 175 pages. I suspect the 120 blog archives URLs may have something to do with it. How can we get them removed?
Can we set them to "No-Index", or should the robot text be used to remove them? Or can some type of removal request be made to Google?
My developers have been struggling with this issue since early June. The bloat on the site is about 175 URLs not on the site map. Is there any go to authority on this issue (it is apparently rather complicated) that can provide a definitive answer?
Thanks!!
Alan -
Yup!
-
Hi Daniel:
You are correct other factors are probably contributing to the drop. The 175 extra URLs are a contributing factor. Our site contains 310 property listing pages of which 250 have a few sentences. It appears we were penalized by Panda 4.0 in May, which apparently targets thin content.
To reverse the penalty we intend to take the following steps:
-Set all listing pages with thin content pages to "No-Index, Follow"
-Somehow remove the 175 URLs that have magically appeared in June. Either set as "no-index, follow", "no-index, no-follow" canonicalize or somehow delete use robot text. My concern is that these 175 extra URLs could be construed as thin content and could be aggravating the Panda penalty.
-Enhance content on 30-40 critical pages.Does this seem reasonable?
Thanks, Alan
-
You wrote:
The site has suffered a drop in ranking since May and we feel it prudent to keep Google from indexing useless URLs. Before May 650 pages showed on the Webmaster Tools Index status, and suddenly in early June when we upgraded the site the index grew by about 175 pages. I suspect the 120 blog archives URLs may have something to do with it. How can we get them removed?
But is it possible this is an unwarranted conclusion? Perhaps you are heading down the wrong path in attempting removal.
Have you exhausted all other possibilities?
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
-
How to deal with 100s of Wordpress media link pages, containing images, but zero content
I have a Wordpress website with well over 1000 posts. I had a SEO audit done and it was highlighted that every post had clickable images. If you click the image a new webpage opens containing nothing but the image. I was told these image pages with zero content are very bad for SEO and that I should get them removed. I have contacted several Wordpress specialists on People Per Hour. I have basically been offered two solutions. 1 - redirect all these image pages to a 404, so they are not found by Google 2 - redirect each image page to the main post page the image is from. What's my best option here? Is there a better option? I don't care if these pages remain, providing they are not crawled by Google and classified as spam etc. All suggestions greatly received!
Web Design | | xpers0 -
Wordpress Blog for Magento Store?
Magento is fantastic for e-commerce although the blog capabilities are limited and our web development fees are just ongoing. I have great experience with wordpress sites and I don't have a bad word to say about the CMS, there are plugins available for everything you possibly need to develop the blog. Would it be a good idea to integrate a wordpress blog for our e-commerce store? To keep both the transactional website and the blog on the same domain, but have a different style for the blog so we're not trying to 'sell' to people looking for home improvement advice and DIY guides, our main priority with the blog is to grow the website authority.
Web Design | | Jseddon921 -
Archiving news
Hi, What's the best way to deal with old news on a website. We don't want to take it off of the website but the news section will look ever bigger if we don't do something. Is there a good way of archiving? (The news is currently all under a 'news' tab in the top nav). Thanks
Web Design | | Houses0 -
Does Google count the domain name in its 115-character "ideal" URL length?
I've been following various threads having to do with URL length and Google's happiness therewith and have yet to find an answer to the question posed in the title. Some answers and discussions have come close, but none I've found have addressed this with any specificity. Here are four hypothetical URLs of varying lengths and configurations: EXAMPLE ONE:
Web Design | | RScime25
my-big-widgets-are-the-best-widgets-in-the-world-and-come-in-many-vibrant-and-unique-colors-and-configurations.html (115 characters) EXAMPLE TWO: sample.com/my-big-widgets-are-the-best-widgets-in-the-world-and-come-in-many-vibrant-and-unique-colors-and-configurations.html (126 characters) EXAMPLE THREE: www.sample.com/my-big-widgets-are-the-best-widgets-in-the-world-and-come-in-many-vibrant-and-unique-colors-and-configurations.html (130 characters) EXAMPLE FOUR: http://www.sample.com/my-big-widgets-are-the-best-widgets-in-the-world-and-come-in-many-vibrant-and-unique-colors-and-configurations.html (137 characters) Assuming the examples contain appropriate keywords and are linked to appropriate anchor text (etc.,) how would Google look upon each? All I've been able to garner thus far is that URLs should be as short as possible while still containing and contextualizing keywords. I have 500+ URLs to review for the company I work for and could use some guidance; yes, I know I should test, but testing is problematical to the extreme; I look to the collective/accumulated wisdom of the MOZVerse for help. Thanks.1 -
Live website is an addon domain - Need site old development url inaccessable from live domain
Hi everyone, I have a website which is built in Joomla 2.5. The development site is located at www,abc.com/subdomain/. We have set the site live using an addon domain which is www.xyz.com. The problem is, www.abc.com/subdomain/ is still accessible and being crawled by Google. How is the best way to make the development url inaccessible? Any help would be appreciated!
Web Design | | DougHosmer0 -
Hey, So I know wordpress is built with a user capability, but what about databasing custom user data?
Hi everyone, so I am working on a project with a friend of mine, without getting into too much detail, here's the problem. We need users to sign in, then for instance, click a button, and then have that action record a value of 1 in a database on our server (preferably accessible through the wordpress admin interface, and in .csv format so that we can make it easy to work with) Any help with databasing, or if wordpress is already built with SOME database technology, etc, etc For instance, SEOmoz's "mozpoint" system.. Wordpress comes built with the ability for users to log in and have profiles with special access, etc, but does it have the ability to log points and values to a specific user as well? Where should I look? What should I google to figure out options? Who could I call / hire?
Web Design | | TylerAbernethy0 -
Websites with only one "html file" and page href # is good for SEO?
I bought one website from templatemonster that contains only one HTML and the pages are generated by links (PROGRAMACAO) My website: www.nextformaturas.com.br This is good in term of SEO? or it is better an website with deveral pages with diferent contents? What are the pros and cons? I really lost on this.
Web Design | | Naghirniac0 -
How do you get rid of the .html and .php extensions at the end of urls?
What is the whitehat way to properly remove the .html and .php extensions at the end of urls? Example: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo.php should be (and is) http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo
Web Design | | Ryan-Bradley0