How to Disallow Specific Folders and Sub Folders for Crawling?
-
Today, I have checked indexing for my website in Google. I found very interesting result over there. You can check that result by following result of Google.
I aware about use of robots.txt file and can disallow images folder to solve this issue.
But, It may block my images to get appear in Google image search.
So, How can I fix this issue?
-
You can, but then the content will be removed from Google's index for 90 days. I am not sure what effect this would have on pages with the images. It shouldn't have any effect, but I would hate for you to have rankings in any way affected for 90 days.
I have no experience in having images indexed in this manner. Perhaps someone else has more knowledge to share on this topic.
-
Can I use Remove URL facility from Google webmaster tools?
-
I checked your URL: http://www.lampslightingandmore.com/images/. The folder is now properly restricted and the images can no longer be seen using this method. Going forward, Google will not be able to index new images in the same manner your other images were indexed.
With respect to the images which have been indexed, I am not certain how Google will respond. The image links are still valid so they may keep them. On the other hand, the links are gone so they may remove them. If it were my site, I would wait 30 days to see if Google removed the results.
Another way you can resolve the issue is to change the file path to your images from /images to /image. This will immediately break all the links. You would need to ensure all the links on your site are updated properly. It still may take Google a month to de-index those results but it would certainly happen in that case.
-
I have added Options -Indexes for images folder in htaccess file.
But, I still able to find out images folder in Google indexing.
Can I check? Is it working properly or not? I don't want to index or display images folder in web search any more.
-
I am going to add following code to my htaccess page.
Options -Indexes
Will it work for me or not?
-
If you have a development team, they should instantly understand the problem.
A simple e-mail to any developer
E-mail title: Please fix
http://www.lampslightingandmore.com/images/
That's it. No other text should be needed. A developer should be able to look at the page and understand the index was left open and how to fix it. If you wish to be nicer then a simple "my index is open for the world to see, please don't allow public access to my server folders" should suffice.
-
Yes, I have similar problem with my code structure. Yesterday, I have set Relative path for all URLs. But, I am not sure about replacing of image name in code after make change in folder.
So, I don't want to go with that manner. I also discussed with my development team and recommend to go with htaccess method.
But, give me caution to follow specific method otherwise it may create big issue for crawling or indexing. Right??
-
The link you shared is perfect. Near the top there is a link for OPTIONS. Click on it and you will be on this page: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/core.html#options
I want to very clearly state you should not make changes to your .htaccess file unless you are comfortable working with code. The slightest mistake and your entire site becomes unavailable. You can also damage the security of your site.
With that said, if you decide to proceed anyway you can add the text I shared to the top of your .htaccess file. You definitely should BACK UP the file before making any changes.
The suggestion vishalkialani made was to rename your /images folder to something else, perhaps /image. The problem is that if your site was not dynamically coded, you would break your image links.
-
In addition to what Ryan mentioned I would rename that folder on your server. That will make google's index outdated and you won't get any visitors on the server
-
I can't getting you.
-
also you can rename it so when google 's index shows up the results you won't get any hits.
if thats what you want.
-
Yes, I checked article to know more about it.
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/htaccess.html
But, I am not able to find my solution. Can you suggest me specific article which suppose to help me more in same direction?
-
Hello.
You have left your site open in a manner which is not recommended. Please take a look at the following URL: http://www.lampslightingandmore.com/images/. On a properly secured server, you should receive a 404 Page Not Found or Access Denied type of error. Since the folder is left open, a Google crawler found it and you are seeing the results.
The means to secure your site varies based on your software configuration. If you are on an Apache web server (the most common setup) then these settings are controlled by your htaccess file. I am not an htaccess expert but I believe adding the following code to your .htaccess file at the top will fix the issue:
Options -Indexes
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
-
A Really Specific Question about 301 Redirect Strategies
Hi there: As part of a site redesign project, we've been doing a lot of 301 redirects, as we retire old URLs or rename them. My question is: is it necessary to redirect ALL old URLS? What about URLs with no links and low authority? Are these really necessary to redirect, since they're not referenced on the web and there's obviously a global redirect happening at the level of the root domain? Just curious; I'm not sure I've ever really understood this...
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Daaveey0 -
Why doesn't my website crawl by Google?
Hi mozzers and members, I am having issues, why my website: http://profilecosmeticsurgery.com/ crawl by Google? let me share more clearly when this starts happening. A month or around 45 days back our website is being indexed and crawled quite well without any issues with having .html extension pages with static built website.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SEOOOOOoooooooo
We finally thought to change to .php version and make whole website and its pages to be treated dynamically.
Once we changed all changes, thereafter this issues started. It has been more than 45 days, our website isn't being crawled since then. I didn't know what are the things preventing this to? Please help. Thanks in Advance Capture1.PNG0 -
What are best page titles for sub-folders or sub-directories? Same as website?
Hi all, We always mention "brand & keyword" in every page title along with topic in the website, like "Topic | vertigo tiles". Let's say there is a sub-directory with hundreds of pages...what will be the best page title practice in mentioning "brand & keyword" across all pages of sub-directory to benefit in-terms if SEO? Can we add "vertigo tiles" to all pages of sub-directory? Or we must not give same phrase? Thanks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vtmoz0 -
Wordpress to HubSpot CMS - I had major crawl issues post launch and now traffic is down 400%
Hi there good looking person! Our traffic went from 12k visitors in july to 3k visitors in july. << www.thedsmgroup.com >>When we moved our site from wordpress to the hubspot COS (their CMS system), I didnt submit a new sitemap to google webmaster tools. I didn't know that I had to... and to be honest, I've never submitted or re-submitted a sitemap to GWT. I have always built clean sites with fresh content and good internal linking and never worried about it. Yoast kind of took care of the rest, as all of my sites and our clients' sites were always on wordpress. Well, lesson learned. I got this message on June 27th in GWT_http://www.thedsmgroup.com/: Increase in not found errors__Google detected a significant increase in the number of URLs that return a 404 (Page Not Found) error. Investigating these errors and fixing them where appropriate ensures that Google can successfully crawl your site's pages._One month after our site launched we had 1,000 404s on our website. Ouch. Google thought we had a 1,200 page website with only 200 good pages and 1,000 error pages. Not very trust worthy... We never had a 404 ever before this, as we added a plugin to wordpress that would 301 any 404 to the homepage, so we never had a broken link on our site, which is not ideal for UX, but as far as google was concerned, our site was always clean. Obviously I have submitted a new sitemap to GWT a few weeks ago, and we are moving in the right direction... **but have I taken care of everything I need to? I'm not sure. Our traffic is still around 100 visitors per day, not 400 per day as it was before we launched the new site.**Thoughts?I'm not totally freaking out or anything, but a month ago we ranked #1 and #2 for "marketing agency nj", now we aren't in the top 100. I've never had a problem like this. _I added a few screen grabs from Google Webmaster Tools that should be helpful.__Bottom line, have I done everything I need to or do I need to do something with all of these "not found" error details that I have in GWT?_None of these "not found" pages have any value and I'm not sure how Google even found them... For example: http://www.thedsmgroup.com/supersize-page-test/screen-shot-2012-11-06-at-2-33-22-pmHelp! -JasonuhLLtou&h4QmGCW#0 uhLLtou&h4QmGCW#1
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Charlene-Wingfield0 -
I've seen and heard alot about city-specific landing pages for businesses with multiple locations, but what about city-specific landing pages for cities nearby that you aren't actually located in? Is it ok to create landing pages for nearby cities?
I asked here https://www.google.com/moderator/#7/e=adbf4 but figured out ask the Moz Community also! Is it actually best practice to create landing pages for nearby cities if you don't have an actual address there? Even if your target customers are there? For example, If I am in Miami, but have a lot of customers who come from nearby cities like Fort Lauderdale is it okay to create those LP's? I've heard this described as best practice, but I'm beginning to question whether Google sees it that way.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RickyShockley2 -
How to leverage browser cache a specific file
Hello all,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | asbchris
I am trying to figure out how to add leverage browser caching to these items. http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?v=3.exp&sensor=false&language=en http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/webfont/1/webfont.js http://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js Whats hard is I understand the purpose, but unlike a css file, how do you specify an expiration on an actual direct path file? Any help or link to get help is appreciated. Chris0 -
Would spiders successfully crawl a page with two distinct sets of content?
Hello all and thank you in advance for the help. I have a coffee company that sell both retail and wholesale products. These are typically the same product, just at different prices. We are planning on having a pop up for users to help them self identify upon their first visit asking if they are retail or wholesale clients. So if someone clicks retail, the cookie will show them retail pricing throughout the site and vice versa for those that identify themselves as wholesale. I can talk to our programmer to find out how he actually plans on doing this from a technical standpoint if it would be of assistance. My question is, how will a spider crawl this site? I am assuming (probably incorrectly) that whatever the "default" selection is (for example, right now now people see retail pricing and then opt into wholesale) will be the information/pricing that they index. So long story short, how would a spider crawl a page that has two sets of distinct pricing information displayed based on user self identification? Thanks again!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ClayPotCreative0 -
Main page - catogory and sub-catogories
This is a complex one for me but here goes. my site sales personalized widgets and this is the main keyword. other keyword that convert are gold personalized widgets silver personalized widgets brass personalized widgets and many others. all those keywords are categories including the main keyword. (each category is a page on my site optimized for that category) (If you did not guess already I sale jewelry. I assume that having the keyword included in links pointing to intenal category pages dilute the importance of this keyword on the main page? there are few options I consider. for testing have the gold,silver and others to include canonical to the main page just to test the affect on the main keyword. Not pointing from the main page to those sub-category pages - it feels wrong to me just canonize the main keyword category page to point to the main page Would love o hear what are our thoughts
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ciznerguy0