Removing a staging area/dev area thats been indexed via GWT (since wasnt hidden) from the index

[Dan-Lawrence]

Hi,

If you set up a brand new GWT account for a subdomain, where the dev area is located (separate from the main GWT account for the main live site) and remove all pages via the remove tool (by leaving the page field blank) will this definately not risk hurting/removing the main site (since the new subdomain specific gwt account doesn't apply to the main site in any way) ??

I have a new client who's dev area has been indexed, dev team has now prevented crawling of this subdomain but the 'the stable door was shut after the horse had already bolted' and the subdomains pages are on G's index so we need to remove the entire subdomain development area asap.  So we are going to do this via the remove tool in a subdomain specific new gwt account, but I just want to triple check this wont accidentally get main site removed too ??

Cheers

Dan

[Kingof5]

I've had to do this for our dev sites before - you'll be fine. Like you said, add the dev site in WMT, do a remove site by leaving the field blank, and proceed. It won't take your main site out of the index.

[matbennett]

I'm waving!   Beautiful here on Hayling Island too.  I wish I could see a window from here!

[Dan-Lawrence]

Many Thanks Mat !

I see your just over the water from me, i'm on the IOW, beautiful day to be by the sea

The indexed pages are linking through to pages with content so not looking like they have been 404'd

Thanks for your comment

Cheers

Dan

[matbennett]

If they allowed crawling, but 404d everything it would de-index anyway. If it was large this could be slow though.

Removal in the manner you suggest shoudn't cause any harm to the main domain though.  I'll say upfront that I haven't tried this (My dev team learned a long time ago that I get more than a little grumpy if staging content is allowed to get indexed!), but the theory is sound.