Test site is live on Google but it duplicates existing site...
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Hello - my developer has just put a test site up on Google which duplicates my existing site (main url is www.mydomain.com and he's put it up on www.mydomain.com/test/ "...I’ve added /test/ to the disallowed urls in robots.txt" is how he put it.
So all the site URLs are content replicated and live on Google with /test/ added so he can block them in robots. In all other ways the test site duplicates all content, etc (until I get around to making some tweaks next week, that is).
Is this a bad idea or should I be OK. Last thing I want is a duplicate content or some other Google penalty just because I'm tweaking an existing website! Thanks in advance, Luke
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Thanks Martijn - have done all I can to block Google indexing now
- Web developer was under the impression he had done what was needed but SEO mindset always makes me delve deeper! Glad I did! -
You could protect the /test/ directory with a username / password by using .htpasswd.
This will prevent Google crawling your site and saves you your Crawl Budget. Make sure you don't link to the test/protected pages.You can remove the /test/ from Google by requesting a removal in Google Webmaster Tools. Otherwise there is a possibility that users visit some pages in the /test/ dir and receive a 404 error when you finished the tweaks.
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Thanks Schwaab - good suggestions there!
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I would add some no index, no follow tags to all of those pages as well just to be safe. I've had Google index some stuff I've had blocked via my robots.txt in the past. Also, make sure if you update your sitemap that you don't accidentally include these test URLs.
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