Stop Google indexing entire website based on search location
-
OK - bear with me...
We have a .co.uk website. However, we only want it indexing in the US Google and NOT the UK Google.
Is there a way of configuring this in Search Console /Webmaster tools?
-
Hi Anthony,
There's unfortunately no setting in Google Webmaster Tools for this.
Your best bet is to use IP detection logic to either totally block (return an error status code and no content) or serve a simple "our content is not available in your country" error page to all requests from IP addresses in the UK.
You can do this by building your own reference database or using a service - there's also some freeware). (FYI: anyone on a proxy network can get around this.)
Google does use "locale-aware" crawling, including appearing to crawl from other countries than the US (most likely through a distributed computing network), and the UK is likely high on the priority list for that.
Google should pick up on this over time and stop including your pages in search results. But it may not be immediate.
Best,
Mike
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
-
New Pages in my Shopify website is not indexing
Hi The Service area pages created on my Shopify website is not indexing on google for a long time, Tried indexing the pages manually and also submitted the sitemap but still the pages doesn't seem to get indexed.
Technical SEO | | Bhisshaun
Thanks in Advance.0 -
Issues with Google Search Console and rekeyed SSL certificate
Hi, Another newbie question please. I've recently changed the name of my business so bought a new domain and rekeyed the SSL certificate to the new domain. Let's say the old domain was called https://123.com and the new one is https://abc.com. I've set up a 301 redirect on 123.com to forward to abc.com and I've added the new domain to Google Search Console and verified it, however can't seem to use the Change of Address tool to move from the old domain to the new domain. I think its because my preferred property (https://123.com) technically no longer exists since I rekeyed the SSL certificate from the old site to the new one so the old site no longer has an SSL certificate. When I go to the old https domain it doesn't load, nor does it seem to forward to the new site. It just times out. Am I correct in assuming that since I rekeyed the SSL certificate, that my original preferred property on Google (https://123.com) no longer exists? And if so, is there a way to use the Change of Address tool or do I simply need to remove the old site from Google and go through a period where my (new) site builds it's ranking from scratch? Thanks in advance folks!
Technical SEO | | Veevlimike0 -
How do I influence what page on my site google shows for specific search phrases?
Hi People, My client has a site www.activeadventures.com. They provide adventure tours of New Zealand, South America and the Himalayas. These destinations are split into 3 folders in the site (eg: activeadventures.com/new-zealand, activeadventures.com/south-america etc....). The actual root folder of the site is generic information for all of the destinations whilst the destination specific folders are specific in their information for the destination in question. The Problem: If you search for say "Active New Zealand" or "Adventure Tours South America" our result that comes up is the activeadventures.com homepage rather than the destination folder homepage (eg: We would want activeadventures.com/new-zealand to be the landing page for people searching for "active new zealand"). Are there any ways in influence google as to what page on our site it chooses to serve up? Many thanks in advance. Conrad
Technical SEO | | activenz0 -
Google no longer is promoting my website!
My traffic just fell off the cliff and I can not figure out what has happened! Help!
Technical SEO | | PatriciaBeth0 -
Website is not indexed in Google
Hi Guys, I have a problem with a website from a customer. His website is not indexed in Google (except for the homepage). I could not find anything that can possibly be the cause. I already checked the robots.txt, sitemap, and plugins on the website. In the HTML code i also couldn't find anything which makes indexing harder than usual. This is the website i am talking about: http://www.xxxx.nl/ (Dutch) The only thing that i am guessing now is the Google sandbox, but even that is quite unlikely. I hope you guys discover something i could not find! Thanks in advance 🙂
Technical SEO | | B.Great0 -
How to optimize for different google seach center (google.de, google.ch) ?
We all use Deutsch language and (.com) domains for the sites. I ranked well in google.com ,but not so well in google.de , google.ch , my competitors ranked much better in google.de,google.ch. I checked most of their outbound-links, but get few information. Links from (.DE) domains or links from sites located in German help the rank for special google seach center ? (google.de, google.ch) . Or some other factors i missed? please help.
Technical SEO | | sunvary0 -
Google place listings and search results- quick question.
Has anybody else noticed that they are ranking better on 'places' yet they have dropped off in the actual search results? We've had no message through webmaster tools. The same seems to have happened to our competitors.
Technical SEO | | onlinechester0 -
Google Indexing
Hi Everybody, I am having kind of an issue when it comes to the results Google is showing on my site. I have a multilingual site, which is main language is Catalan. But of course if I am looking results in Spanish (google.es) or in English (google.com) I want Google to show the results with the proper URL, title and descriptions. My brand is "Vallnord" so if you type this in Google you will be displayed the result in Catalan (Which is not optimized at all yet) but if you search "vallnord.com/es" only then you will be displayed the result in Spanish What do I have to do in order for Google to read this the way I want? Regards, Guido.
Technical SEO | | SilbertAd0