How is Google finding our preview subdomains?
-
I've noticed that Google is able to find, crawl and index preview subdomains we set up for new client sites (e.g. clientpreview.example.com). I know now to use "meta name="robots" and robots.txt) to block the search engines from crawling these subdomains. My question though, is how is Google finding these subdomains? We don't link to these preview domains from anywhere else, so I can't figure out how Google is even getting there.
Does anybody have any insight on this?
-
Thanks for your response Irving. We put some of our preview sites on subdomains of our main domain, but then remove them after the site goes live, so their shouldn't be any duplicate content issues. The main question is just how Google is finding these subdomains.
-
Thanks for the insight guys.
-
I don't specifically use the Google Toolbar, but others in the office may (although I don't think so). It sounds like Chrome could be a potential source as well?
-
I think that this is a good idea. But you gotta be careful.
Our competitor (who ranked #1 and we ranked at #2) had their site redesigned and the design company included the noindex on every page. They forgot to take it off when the new design went live. It took them quite a while to figure it out and we enjoyed all of their sales for about a month.
We are #1 now and they are #2. Must have been a bad design job.
-
If the subdomains are added to WMT google will know about it. if you are designing sites for clients and putting them on your site as subdomains it behooves you to make sure 100% that their dev sites are not being seen by Google. It's duplicate content and your subdomain is the original source of this content. Looks unprofessional too
a) verify any subdomain you are creating for a client in WMT
b) block it in robots.txt and noindex nofollow all pages globally
c) for the ones that are already indexed, go into google WMT and go into that subdomain account and request removal of the site in Googles index. This will remove the indexing for that subdomain only don't worry it won't remove your main site from the index.
-
I would also consider adding a noindex tag if you want the urls removed.
-
I agree with Mat. You never know, but yes Chrome could be another major source. It also depends what you set as your privacy when you setup Chrome (Send anonymous usage data to Google, Yes/No ?) and so on.
-
We usually put them behind an .htaccess login now. We've had situations where the development site have been outranking the live site. Great demo of the power of on-site optimisation, but still a bit annoying for the client.
People used to always blame google toolbar for this. Likewise using chrome could potentially add something to the "to crawl" list. I wonder what the respective privacy policies say about that. I've also seen staging sites pick up links. When an external link on the staging site has been clicked it has alerted someone else, appeared as a link back/trackback etc.
-
The discovery can be from multiple mediums. Do you or the client have Google Toolbar installed ?
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
-
Snippet not work for my article in google
I add the script for star snippet in my website but not work in my posts you can see it in this URL https://youtech.ooo/showbox-apk-download/ when I searched in google my custom keyword "Showbox" my competitor show with star snippet in SERP but my site doesn't show snippet stars. Thank You!
Technical SEO | | JackJasonn1 -
Why google does not remove my page?
Hi everyone, last week i add "Noindex" tag into my page, but that site still appear in the organic search. what other things i can do for remove from google?
Technical SEO | | Jorge_HDI0 -
Why wont google Index this page?
A week ago i accidentally changed this page settings in my CMS to "disable & dont index" as i was going to replace this page with another, but this didnt happen, but i forgot to switch the settings back! http://www.over50choices.co.uk/funeral-planning/funeral-plans Anyhow in an effort to get it back up quickly i submitted in GWTs but its still not indexed. When i use several SEO on page checking tools it has the Meta Title data as "Form" and not the correct title. Any ideas please? Yours frustrated Ash
Technical SEO | | AshShep10 -
Google Analytics and Adwords Linkup
I'm in the middle of a log jam with linking google analytics to google adwords. I have a client whose account lists properties for five distinct websites. Company A www.website1.com/
Technical SEO | | OOMDODigital
www.website2.com/
www.website3.com/ There are individual adwords accounts for each property that I'm trying to link up. Here's the issue I"m having. I can link up Website1.com Analytics to Website1.com Adwords. Then I'll link up Website2.com Analyitics to Website2.com Adwords. This will cause Website1.com to be linked up to Website2.com's Adwords. How do I fix this?0 -
Google is changing the title
Hi! Lately i have seen that Google changed the page titles for some clients, not all... its about 30% of them. For example, the title looks likes this after the Google change: Company name: SEO and Pay per click management But in on that page it looks like this: SEO and Pay per click management - Company name Does anyone know why?
Technical SEO | | DanielNordahl1 -
Google autorship in specific field?
Hi, I want to ask you about something I 've read about google and authorship. It is written that it is better to show yourself as a author in a specific field. I myself have knowledge and interest in many fields - like SEO, vegan living, martial arts. And I want to be seen as specialist in all of them. Does it mean that we are limited to mark with autorship articles in only one field, in order to be seen as expert in a specific field? f.e. Should I mark with "rel=author" the articles that are about SEO because I want to be seen as author in that specific field for sure. Iif I mark with "rel=author" articles also about martial arts would these affect the understanding about my expertise in SEO?
Technical SEO | | vladokan0 -
Google description problem
Hi all, My website is www.ipbskinning.com I'm having a problem with how my site is appearing in google. I have this in the head of my website: <meta name='<a class="attribute-value">description</a>' content='<a class="attribute-value">Free and Custom IPB Skins for Invision Power Board.</a>'/> Yet when I google 'ipbskinning' it says: Solid Skins. 1We test all our skins in all browsers to insure that they are compatible. This ensures that your users have the best user experience. which is random text from the content of my site. Any idea why this is happening? Thanks a lot all
Technical SEO | | pezza34340 -
Passing SEO value from a subdomain
Hi Everybody, I have built a website (http://rugby.europcar.ie) which has gone viral and getting huge amounts of traffic world wide. The problem is, all the Facebook shares, tweets and other social traffic is all referencing the subdomain, and now www.europcar.ie where I want to build rankings. What are my best options for referring this ranking power to my main domain? Thanks in advance Ronan
Technical SEO | | notnem0