Google has indexed a lot of test pages/junk from the development days.
-
With hind site I understand that this could have been avoided if robots.txt was configured properly.
My website is www.clearvisas.com, and is indexed with both the www subdomain and with out.
When I run site:clearvisas.com in Google I get 1,330 - All junk from the development days.
But when I run site:www.clearvisas.com in Google I get 66 - these results all post development and more in line with what I wanted to be indexed.
Will 1,330 junk pages hurt my seo?
Is it possible to de-index them and should I?
If the answer is yes to any of the questions how should I proceed?
Kind regards,
Fuad
-
Thanks Ryan.
-
It's impossible to say conclusively without examining your site and the content; however, since you refer to them as "junk" pages, it is likely they should best be removed to protect your other pages.
-
Thanks Ryan.
Are the un-wanted/irrelevant pages likely to affect my organic seo?
-
Thanks for your view David, its much appreciated. Thanks, Fuad
-
I would suggest following option 3 from David's recommendations.
Simply add the "noindex" tag to the pages you want removed from Google. The pages will then be removed the next time they are crawled.
You are correct the issue could have been avoided by blocking the site during development, which is a recommended practice; however, it is recommended to minimize entries in the robots.txt file of a live site. You can add the pages in robots.txt and Google can still index them.
The above applies if you feel the need to keep the pages around. If you no longer need those pages, removing them and providing a 410 error (GONE) would be the best approach.
-
Go to Google Webmaster Tools => Optimization => Remove URLS
In order for Google to remove the URL, you will need to do 1 of the following:
1. Block it with robots.txt, but it sounds like it's too late for that.
2. If you removed the old development content, make sure that the old content's URL produces a 404 or 410 status code.
3. Block the content with a Meta noncontent tag.
In my opinion, option 2 is the easiest since you should have a 404 page anyway.
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
-
Does Google considers the cached content of a page if it's redirected to new page?
Hi all, If we redirect an old page to some new page, we know that content relevancy between source page and this new page matters at Google. I just wonder if Google is looking at the content relevancy of old page (from cache) and new page too. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Does Google ignores page title suffix?
Hi all, It's a common practice giving the "brand name" or "brand name & primary keyword" as suffix on EVERY page title. Well then it's just we are giving "primary keyword" across all pages and we expect "homepage" to rank better for that "primary keyword". Still Google ranks the pages accordingly? How Google handles it? The default suffix with primary keyword across all pages will be ignored or devalued by Google for ranking certain pages? Or by the ranking of website improves for "primary keyword" just because it has been added to all page titles?
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Meta Descriptions - Google ignores what we have
Hi I still write meta descriptions to help with CTR. I am currently looking at a page where the CTR needs improving. I check the meta on Google SERPs & it isn't pulling through the meta description we have - but other info on the page. This isn't ideal - why does this happen? Will Google just make the decision and are descriptions not worth writing?
Algorithm Updates | | BeckyKey0 -
Ranking Well in Google But Not Bing - Why?
Hello Moz Community, I'm ranking well in Google (#2-#6 for various keywords) but on the second page of Bing. Are there certain differences that I should be aware of? Thanks, Cole
Algorithm Updates | | ColeLusby0 -
Trafic drop after a huge indexation
Hello everyone, My website used to have about 500k indexed pages in Google. After publishing fresh sitemaps and a little local "buzz", it now has about 6 millions indexed pages and the numbers are skyrocketing (GWT says 7 millions and it will probably keep going). My website has a total number of pages of 10 millions. I used to have about 5k organic visite each day, but since the big indexation has started, I now have half less. I read many things about that kind of trafic drop, and it seems to be a normal step when indexing a huge site. I just wanted to know if you guys had any similar experiences and if yes, if there are specific tasks to do in order to recover/develop the organic trafic or if it's just a matter of time. Thanks for your help and share of experiences 😉
Algorithm Updates | | Pureshore0 -
Google is showing crazy results
Google is showing crazy results in these days sometimes my sites are on top of all keywords sometimes far behind in search engine in same day what is going on ????
Algorithm Updates | | GM0070 -
How To Rank High In Google Places?
Hello SEOmoz, This question has been hounding me for a long time and I've never seen a single reliable information from the web that answers it. Anyway here's my question; Supposing that there are three Google places for three different websites having the same categories and almost same keywords and same district/city/IP how does Google rank one high from the other? Or simply put if you own one of those websites and you would want to rank higher over your competitors in Google places Search results how does one do it? A number of theories were brought up by some of my colleagues: 1. The age of the listing 2. The number of links pointing to the listing (supposing that one can build links to ones listing) 3. The name/url of the listing, tags, description, etc. 4. The address of the listing. 5. Authority of the domain (linked website) You see some listings have either no description, and only one category and yet they rank number one for a specific term/keyword whereas others have complete categories, descriptions etc. If you could please give me a definite answer I will surely appreciate it. Thank you very much and more power!
Algorithm Updates | | LeeAnn300 -
Rankings in Bing/Yahoo lower than in Google
Other than a few keywords, my rankings are consistently lower in MSN/Bing/Yahoo than in Google. Any ideas or suggestions as to why?
Algorithm Updates | | NueMD0