Removing a site from Google's index
-
We have a site we'd like to have pulled from Google's index. Back in late June, we disallowed robot access to the site through the robots.txt file and added a robots meta tag with "no index,no follow" commands. The expectation was that Google would eventually crawl the site and remove it from the index in response to those tags. The problem is that Google hasn't come back to crawl the site since late May. Is there a way to speed up this process and communicate to Google that we want the entire site out of the index, or do we just have to wait until it's eventually crawled again?
-
ok. Not abundantly clear upon first reading. Thank you for your help.
-
Thank you for pointing that out Arlene. I do see it now.
The statement before that line is of key importance for an accurate quote. "If you own the site, you can verify your ownership in Webmaster Tools and use the verified URL removal tool to remove an entire directory from Google's search results."
It could be worded better but what they are saying is AFTER your site has already been removed from Google's index via the URL removal tool THEN you can block it with robots.txt. The URL removal tool will remove the pages and keep them out of the index for 90 days. That's when changing the robots.txt file can help.
-
"Note: To ensure your directory or site is permanently removed, you should use robots.txt to block crawler access to the directory (or, if you’re removing a site, to your whole site)."
The above is a quote from the page. You have to expand the section I referenced in my last comment. Just re-posting google's own words.
-
I thought you were offering a quote from the page. It seems that is your summarization. I apologize for my misunderstanding.
I can see how you can make that conclusion but it not accurate. Robots.txt does not ensure a page wont get indexed. I always recommend use of the noindex tag which should be 100% effective for the major search engines.
-
Go here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=164734
Then expand the option down below that says: "<a class="zippy zippy-track zippy-collapse" name="RemoveDirectory">I want to remove an entire site or the contents of a directory from search results"</a>
They basically instruct you to block all robots in the robots.txt file, then request removal of your site. Once it's removed, the robots file will keep it from getting back into the index. They also recommend putting a "noindex" meta tag on each page to ensure nothing will get picked up. I think we have it taken care of at this point. We'll see
-
Arlene, I checked the link you offered but I could not locate the quote you offered anywhere on the page. I am sure it is referring to a different context. Using robots.txt as a blocking tool is fine BEFORE a site or page is indexed, but not after.
-
I used the removal tool and just entered a "/" which put in a request to have everything in all of my site's directories pulled from the index. And I have left "noindex" tags in place on every page. Hopefully this will get it done.
Thanks for your comments guys!
-
We blocked robots from accessing the site because Google told us to. This is straight from the webmaster tools help section:
Note: To ensure your directory or site is permanently removed, you should use robots.txt to block crawler access to the directory (or, if you’re removing a site, to your whole site).
-
I have webmaster tools setup, but I don't see an option to remove the whole site. There is a URL removal tool, but there are over 700 pages I want pulled out of the index. Is there an option in webmaster tools to have the whole site pulled from the index?
-
Actually, since you have access to the site, you can leave the robots.txt at disallowed -- if you go into Google Webmaster Tools, verify your site, and request removal of your entire site. Let me know if you'd like a link on this with more information. This will involve adding an html file or meta tag to your site to verify you have ownership.
-
Thank you. Didn't realize we were shooting ourselves in the foot.
-
Hi Arlene.
The problem is that when you blocked the site with robots.txt, you are preventing Google from re-crawling your site so they cannot see the noindex tag. If you have properly placed the noindex tag on all the pages in your site, then modify your robots.txt file to allow Google to see your site. Once that happens Google will begin crawling your site and then be able to deindex your pages.
The only other suggestion is to submit a sitemap and/or remove the "nofollow" tag. With the nofollow tag on all your pages, Google may visit your site for a single page at a time since you are telling the crawler not to follow any links it finds. You are blocking it's normal discovery of your site.
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
-
Site's meta description is not being shown in Google Search results. Instead our privacy policy is getting indexed.
We re-launched our new site and put in the re-directs. Our site is https://www.fico.com/en. When I search for "fico" in Google. I see the privacy policy getting indexed as meta descriptions instead of our actual meta description. I have edited the meta description, requested Google to re-index our site. Not sure what to do next? Thanks for your advise.
Technical SEO | | gosheen0 -
How to use Google search console's 'Name change' tool?
Hi There, I'm having trouble performing a 'Name change' for a new website (rebrand and domain change) in Google Search console. Because the 301 redirects are in place (a requirement of the name change tool), Google can no longer verify the site, which means I can't complete the name change? To me, step two (301 redirect) conflicts with step there (site verification) - or is there a way to perform a 301 redirect and have the tool verify the old site? Any pointers in the right direction would be much appreciated. Cheers Ben
Technical SEO | | cmscss0 -
Is it problematic for Google when the site of a subdomain is on a different host than the site of the primary domain?
The Website on the subdomain runs on a different server (host) than the site on the main domain.
Technical SEO | | Christian_Campusjaeger0 -
How To Cleanup the Google Index After a Website Has Been HACKED
We have a client whose website was hacked, and some troll created thousands of viagra pages, which were all indexed by Google. See the screenshot for an example. The site has been cleaned up completely, but I wanted to know if anyone can weigh in on how we can cleanup the Google index. Are there extra steps we should take? So far we have gone into webmaster tools and submitted a new site map. ^802D799E5372F02797BE19290D8987F3E248DCA6656F8D9BF6^pimgpsh_fullsize_distr.png
Technical SEO | | yoursearchteam0 -
Bing is not Indexing my site.
Hi, My website is four months old and has more than 8000 pages. Bing has indexed only 8 pages till date and Google also keeps playing hide and seek with it. There was a time when google indexed almost all the pages of my site but now there are only 5000 pages indexed. Moreover when I check my site on google (by typing site:socktail.com), it shows only 26 pages. Please let me know what should I do. If somebody wants to take a look, my website is http://socktail.com Thanks
Technical SEO | | saurabh19050 -
Which factors are effect on Google index?
Mywebsite have 455 URL submitedbut only 77 URLs are indexed. How can i improve more indexed URL?
Technical SEO | | magician0 -
302 error removing site from results
I have a client who had a screwy url structure based off of parameters and all. They hired a developer that added the keyword to the end of the url and set up 302 redirects to the new keyword included url. Since then the entire site has virtually gone missing in the results but it is not penalized. I put in a request with webmaster tools for reconsideration and they said there was no penalty. I only just found the 302 problem today and think this is probably the problem. Could this remove a site from the search results?
Technical SEO | | webfeatseo0 -
How do you know what version of your site of Google is in their index?
This is going to sound like a strange question, but I am trying to understand which version of our site is in the index. You might think this is an obvious question, but here is why I am asking: 1. Today I searched for a specific keyword and found the listing. 2. I liked on the right arrow next to the listing and checked the cache date. It says 6/28 and shows the site as of 6/28. 3. I expected to see that we were just indexed as we jumped several pages since yesterday and I had just checked two days ago and we hadn't moved at all. It seems like Google may have taken the changes we made on 7/2 but since it is showing 6/28, I am note sure. Since this is confusing, here is the chronology: 1. Made changes 6/20. 2. Site appeared to be indexed on 6/28. 3. Made changes on 7/2. 4. Checked the site on 7/2 and we were in position 60. Checked the site on 7/4 and we were in position 61. 5.. Checked the site today (7/6) and see we are in position 8. The cache date shows as 6/28. I suspect that Google just indexed us yesterday and is reflecting the changes I made on 7/2. But the fact that it says it was cached on 6/28 seems to sugges otherwise. I want to be sure I know which version got us the good rankings - is there any way to be sure? Thanks!!
Technical SEO | | trophycentraltrophiesandawards0