Duplicate site (disaster recovery) being crawled and creating two indexed search results
-
I have a primary domain, toptable.co.uk, and a disaster recovery site for this primary domain named uk-www.gtm.opentable.com. In the event of a disaster, toptable.co.uk would get CNAMEd (DNS alias) to the .gtm site. Naturally the .gtm disaster recover domian is an exact match to the toptable.co.uk domain.
Unfortunately, Google has crawled the uk-www.gtm.opentable site, and it's showing up in search results. In most cases the gtm urls don't get redirected to toptable they actually appear as an entirely separate domain to the user. The strong feeling is that this duplicate content is hurting toptable.co.uk, especially as .gtm.ot is part of the .opentable.com domain which has significant authority. So we need a way of stopping Google from crawling gtm.
There seem to be two potential fixes. Which is best for this case?
- use the robots.txt to block Google from crawling the .gtm site
2) canonicalize the the gtm urls to toptable.co.uk
In general Google seems to recommend a canonical change but in this special case it seems robot.txt change could be best.
Thanks in advance to the SEOmoz community!
-
It's a little tricky. While Andrea is right about Robots.txt - it's not great for removal once pages/domains are indexed, you can block the sub-domain with robots.txt and then request removal in Google Webmaster Tools (you need to create a separate account for the sub-domain itself). That's often the fastest way to remove something from the index, and if it has no search value, I might go that route. Just proceed with caution - it's a delicate procedure.
Doing 1-to-1 canonicalization or adding 301 redirects may be the next strongest signal (NOINDEX is a bit weaker, IMO). However, Google will have to re-crawl the sub-domain to do that, so you'll need to keep the paths open.
-
First, if the pages are already indexed then a robots.txt won't make them go away. A meta tag no index on the pages is the better solution. This allows search engines to "read" you page, see the no index tag and then work to remove the pages from index. A robots.txt doesn't necessarily accomplish the same result.
-
If you can do a 1-to-1 page canonicalization (each page on .co.uk is canonicaled to the equivalent page on the .com) then I would do that.
Otherwise, I would noindex the backup 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
-
Question About Permalink Showing Up in Search Results
Does Google determine how your permalink shows up in the search results or is that a setting on our end? I noticed most of our competitors have their permalink show up in their snippet results. Ours shows "knowledgebase" instead. I think seeing the keywords in the permalink helps with conversions. https://screencast.com/t/fyFyNaWayajx
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | LindsayE0 -
Google Search Console Site Property Questions
I have a few questions regarding Google Search Console. Google Search Console tells you to add all versions of your website https, http, www, and non-www. 1.) Do I than add ALL the information for ALL versions? Sitemaps, preferred site, etc.? 2.) If yes, when I add sitemaps to each version, do I add the sitemap url of the site version I'm on or my preferred version? - For instance when adding a sitemap to a non-www version of the site, do I use the non-www version of the sitemap? Or since I prefer a https://www.domain.com/sitemap.xml do I use it there? 3.) When adding my preferred site (www or non-www) do I use my preferred site on all site versions? (https, http, www, and non-www) Thanks in advance. Answers vary throughout Google!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Mike.Bean0 -
Is there a way to no index no follow sections on a page to avoid duplicative text issues?
I'm working on an event-related site where every blog post starts with an introductory header about the event and then a Call To Action at the end which gives info about the Registration Deadline. I'm wondering if there is something we can and should do to avoid duplicative content penalties. Should these go in a widget or is there some way to No Index, No Follow a section of text? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Spiral_Marketing0 -
Do search engine consider this duplicate or thin content?
I operate an eCommerce site selling various equipment. We get product descriptions and various info from the manufacturer's websites offered to the dealers. Part of that info is in the form of User Guides and Operational Manuals downloaded in pdf format written by the manufacturer, then uploaded to our site. Also we embed and link to videos that are hosted on the manufacturer's respective YouTube or Vimeo channels. This is useful content for our customers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MichaelFactor
My questions are: Does this type of content help our site by offering useful info, or does it hurt our SEO due to it being thin and or duplicate content? Or does the original content publishers get all the benefit? Is there any benefit to us publishing this stuff? What exactly is considered "thin content"?0 -
An improved search box within the search results - Results?
Hello~ Does anyone have any positive traffic results to share since implementing this? Thanks! MS
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MargaritaS0 -
Is Google applying some customized search results, even when Private Browsing?
I am including a screenshot of a very interesting search result I received while InPrivate Browsing in Google using IE9. I was spot-checking some keywords while private browsing and the first one I searched was "presonus studiolive." Then, I searched a completely unrelated term "communion supplies." I am attaching a screenshot of the search results page I then received from Google. Interesting, no? I can't even begin to wrap my head around the implications of a search results page that mixes results from two completel unrelated terms. Thoughts? 7QNxPHM.jpg
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | danatanseo0 -
Search results all going to home page
I'm an author, and after doing a search for one of my books I realized that no matter what was searched, the user was getting lead to the homepage. please see the attached picture. How do I fix this and is this hurting my SEO? Capture.JPG Capture1.JPG
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | StreetwiseReports0 -
Push for site-wide https, but all pages in index are http. Should I fight the tide?
Hi there, First Q&A question 🙂 So I understand the problems caused by having a few secure pages on a site. A few links to the https version a page and you have duplicate content issues. While there are several posts here at SEOmoz that talk about the different ways of dealing with this issue with respect to secure pages, the majority of this content assumes that the goal of the SEO is to make sure no duplicate https pages end up in the index. The posts also suggest that https should only used on log in pages, contact forms, shopping carts, etc." That's the root of my problem. I'm facing the prospect of switching to https across an entire site. In the light of other https related content I've read, this might seem unecessary or overkill, but there's a vaild reason behind it. I work for a certificate authority. A company that issues SSL certificates, the cryptographic files that make the https protocol work. So there's an obvious need our site to "appear" protected, even if no sensitive data is being moved through the pages. The stronger push, however, stems from our membership of the Online Trust Alliance. https://otalliance.org/ Essentially, in the parts of the internet that deal with SSL and security, there's a push for all sites to utilize HSTS Headers and force sitewide https. Paypal and Bank of America are leading the way in this intiative, and other large retailers/banks/etc. will no doubt follow suit. Regardless of what you feel about all that, the reality is that we're looking at future that involves more privacy protection, more SSL, and more https. The bottom line for me is; I have a site of ~800 pages that I will need to switch to https. I'm finding it difficult to map the tips and tricks for keeping the odd pesky https page out of the index, to what amounts to a sitewide migratiion. So, here are a few general questions. What are the major considerations for such a switch? Are there any less obvious pitfalls lurking? Should I even consider trying to maintain an index of http pages, or should I start work on replacing (or have googlebot replace) the old pages with https versions? Is that something that can be done with canonicalization? or would something at the server level be necessary? How is that going to affect my page authority in general? What obvious questions am I not asking? Sorry to be so longwinded, but this is a tricky one for me, and I want to be sure I'm giving as much pertinent information as possible. Any input will be very much appreciated. Thanks, Dennis
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | dennis.globalsign0