Please help :) Troubles getting 3 types of content de-indexed
-
Hi there,
I know that it takes time and I have already submitted a URL removal request 3-4 months ago.
But I would really appreciate some kind advice on this topic.Thank you in advance to everyone who contributes!
1) De-indexing archives
Google had indexed all my:
/tag/
/authorname/
archives.I have set them as no-index a few months ago but they still appear in search engine.
Is there anything I can do to speed up this de-indexing?2) De-index /plugins/ folder in wordpress site
They have also indexed all my /plugins/ folder. So I have added a disallow /plugin/ in my robots.txt 3-4 months ago, but /plugins/ still appear in search engine.
What can I do to get the /plugins/ folder de-indexed?
Is my disallow /plugins/ in robots.txt making it worse because google has already indexed it and not it can't access the folder? How do you solve this?3) De-index a subdomain
I had created a subdomain containing adult content, and have it completely deleted it from my cpanel 3months ago, but it still appears in search engines.
Anything else I can do to get it de-indexed?
Thank you in advance for your help!
-
Hi Fabio
If the content is gone when you visit your old URLs do you get a 404 code? You can plug the old URLs into urivalet.com to see what code is returned. If you do, then you're all set. If you don't, see if you can just upload a robots.txt file to that subdomain and block all search engines. Here's info on how to do that http://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html
-Dan
-
Hey Dan,there is no content.
The whole website has been deleted, but it still appears in search results.What should I do?
should I put back some content and then de-index it?Thanks!
fabio -
Hi There
You should ensure the content either;
- has meta noindex tags
- or is blocked with robots.txt
- or 404's or 410's (is missing)
And then use the URL removal tool again and see if that works.
-
Hey Dan thanks a lot for all your help!
There still is a problem though. A while ago I had created an adult subdomain: adult.mywebsite.comThen I completely deleted everything inside it (even though I noticed the subfolder is still in my account).
A few days ago, when I started this thread, I also created a GWMT account for adult.mywebsite.com and submitted a removal request for all those URLs (about 15).Now today when I check:
site:mywebsite.com
or
site.adult.mywebsite.comthe URLs still appear in search results.
When I check
cache:adult.mywebsite.comit sends me to a google 404 page:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?/complete/search?client=hp&hl=en&gs_rn=31&gs_ri=hp&cp=26&gs_id=s xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxSo I don't know what this means...
Does it mean google hasn't deindexed them?
How do I get them deindexed?
Is it possible google is having troubles de-indexing them because they have no content in them or something like that?What should I do to get rid of them?
Thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!!
Fabio -
Hey Fabio
Regarding #2 I'd give it a little bit more time. 301's take a little longer to drop out, so maybe check back in a week or two
Technically the URL removal will mainly work if the content now 404's, is noindexed or blocked in robots.txt but with a redirdect you can do none of those, so you just have to wait for them to pick up on the redirects.
-Dan
-
Hi Dan,
1. Ok! I will.
2. When I click on the /go/ link in search results it redirects me to the affiliate website. I asked for the removal of /go/ a few days ago, but they (about 30 results) still appear in google when I search with the site:mywebsite.com trick.
What should I do about it? How can I get rid of them? They were created with the SimpleUrl plugin which I deleted about 3 months ago though.
3. Got it!
Thanks!
Fabio -
Hi There
1. For the flash file NoReflectLight.swf - I would do a removal request in WMT and maintain the blocking in robots.txt of /plugins/
2. When you do a URL removal in WMT the files need to either be blocked in robots.txt or have a noindex on them or 404. Doesn't that sort of link redirect to your affiliate product? In other words, if I were to try to visit /go/affiliate-product/ it would redirect to www.affiliateproductwebsite.com ?Or does /go/affiliate-product/ load it's on page on your site?
3. I would maintain the robots.txt bloking on /plugins/ - if no other files from there are indexed, they will not be in the future.
-Dan
-
Hey Dan,
thanks for the quick reply.I have gone trough site:mywebsite.com and I found that tags and categories disappeared but there still is some content that shouldn't be indexed like this:
mywebsite.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-flash-countdown/counter_cs3_v2_NoReflectLight.swf
and this:
mywebsite.com/go/affiliate-product/and I found this:Disallow: /wp-content/plugins/
in my robots.txtThing is that:
- I have deleted that wp-flash-countdown plugin at least 9 months ago
- I have manually removed all the urls with /go/ from GWMT and when I search for a cached version of them they are not there
- If I remove Disallow: /wp-content/plugins/ from my robots.txt won't that get all my plugins' pages to be indexed? So how do I make sure they are not indexed?
Thank you so much for your help!So far you have been the most helpful answerer in this forum.
-
Hey There
You want to look for this;
You can just do a cntrl-f (to search text in the source) and type in "noindex" and it should be present on the Tag archives.
-Dan
-
Hey Dan, thanks a lot for your help.
I have tried the cache trick on my home page and the cached version was about 4-5 days old.
I have then tried to cache:mywebsite/tag/ and it gives me a google 404 not found which I suppose is a good sign.
But if they have been de-indexed why do they appear in search results then?
I am not sure how to check the double SEO no-index in the source code though. How do I do that exactly? What should I look for after right-clicking -> source code?
Thanks for your help!
My MOZ account ends in two days so I may not be able to reply back next time.
-
Hi There
Should have explained better
if you type cache: in front of any web URL for example cache:apple.com you get;
And see the "cache" date? This is not the same as the crawl date, but it can give you a rough indication of how often Google might be looking at your pages.
So try that on some of your tag archives and if the cache date is say 4+ weeks ago maybe Google isn't looking at the site very often.
But it's odd they haven't been removed yet, especially with the URL removal tool - that tool usually only takes a day. Noindex tags usually only take a week or two.
Have you examined the source code to make sure it does in fact say "noindex" by the robots tag - or that there is not a conflicting duplicate robots noindex tag? Sometimes wordpress themes and plugins both try adding SEO tags and you can end up with duplicates.
-Dan
-
Hey Dan thanks,
well, so google had indexed all my tags, categories and stuff.The only things I had blocked in my robots was
/go/ for affiliate links
and
/plugins/ for pluginsso I did let google see that categories and archives pages were no-indexed.
I have also submit the removal request many months ago but I haven't quite understood what you say about the cache dates. What should I check?
Thanks for your help!
-
Hi There
For all these cases above, this may be a situation where you've BOTH blocked these in robots.txt and added noindex tags. You can not block the directories in robots.txt and get them deindexed, because Google can not then crawl the URLs to see the noindex tag.
If this is the case, I would remove any disallows to /tag/ etc in robots.txt, allow Google to crawl the URLs to see the nodinex tags - wait a few weeks and see what happens.
As far as the URL removal not working, make sure you have the correct subdomain registered - www or non-www etc for the URLs you want removed.
If neither one of those is the issue, please write back so I can try to help you more with that. Google should noindex the pages in a week or two under normal situations. The other thing is, check the cache date of the pages. If the cache dates are prior to the date you added the noindex, Google might not have seen the noindex directives yet.
-Dan
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
-
Can a duplicate page referencing the original page on another domain in another country using the 'canonical link' still get indexed locally?
Hi I wonder if anyone could help me on a canonical link query/indexing issue. I have given an overview, intended solution and question below. Any advice on this query will be much appreciated. Overview: I have a client who has a .com domain that includes blog content intended for the US market using the correct lang tags. The client also has a .co.uk site without a blog but looking at creating one. As the target keywords and content are relevant across both UK and US markets and not to duplicate work the client has asked would it be worthwhile centralising the blog or provide any other efficient blog site structure recommendations. Suggested solution: As the domain authority (DA) on the .com/.co.uk sites are in the 60+ it would risky moving domains/subdomain at this stage and would be a waste not to utilise the DAs that have built up on both sites. I have suggested they keep both sites and share the same content between them using a content curated WP plugin and using the 'canonical link' to reference the original source (US or UK) - so not to get duplicate content issues. My question: Let's say I'm a potential customer in the UK and i'm searching using a keyword phrase that the content that answers my query is on both the UK and US site although the US content is the original source.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JonRayner
Will the US or UK version blog appear in UK SERPs? My gut is the UK blog will as Google will try and serve me the most appropriate version of the content and as I'm in the UK it will be this version, even though I have identified the US source using the canonical link?2 -
No index detected in robots meta tag GSC issue_Help Please
Hi Everyone, We just did a site migration ( URL structure change, site redesign, CMS change). During migration, dev team messed up badly on a few things including SEO. The old site had pages canonicalized and self canonicalized <> New site doesn't have anything (CMS dev error) so we are working retroactively to add canonicalization mechanism The legacy site had URL’s ending with a trailing slash “/” <> new site got redirected to Set of url’s without “/” New site action : All robots are allowed: A new sitemap is submitted to google search console So here is my problem (it been a long 24hr night for me 🙂 ) 1. Now when I look at GSC homepage URL it says that old page is self canonicalized and currently in index (old page with a trailing slash at the end of URL). 2. When I try to perform a live URL test, I get the message "No: 'noindex' detected in 'robots' meta tag" , so indexation cant be done. I have no idea where noindex is coming from. 3. Robots.txt in search console still showing old file ( no noindex there ) I tried to submit new file but old one still coming up. When I click on "See live robots.txt" I get current robots. 4. I see that old page is still canonicalized and attempting to index redirected old page might be confusing google Hope someone can help to get the new page indexed! I really need it 🙂 Please ping me if you need more clarification. Thank you ! Thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bgvsiteadmin1 -
Google Not Indexing App Content
Hello Mozzers I recently noticed that there has been an increase in crawl errors reported in Google Search console & Google has stopped indexing our app content. Could this be due to the fact that there is a mismatch between the host path name mentioned within the android deeplink (within the alternate tag) and the actual URL of the page. For instance on the following desktop page http://www.example.com.au/page-1 the android deeplink points to http://www.example.com.au/android-app://com.example/http/www.example.com.au/4652374 Please note that the content on both pages (desktop & android) is same.Is this is a correct setup or am I doing something wrong here? Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you so much in advance.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | InMarketingWeTrust0 -
Help needed on HTTPS
Hi Can anyone help me. I need some help with some example of large e-commerce sites going to https. Ideally these need to be e-commerce sites but any large site will be great, so that I can show the impact. The site can be based anywhere in the world, its more the impact I am after. Thanks Andy
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Andy-Halliday0 -
Is this link being indexed?
link text Deadline: Monday, Sep 30, 2013 link text I appreciate the help guys!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jameswalkerson0 -
Why are so many pages indexed?
We recently launched a new website and it doesn't consist of that many pages. When you do a "site:" search on Google, it shows 1,950 results. Obviously we don't want this to be happening. I have a feeling it's effecting our rankings. Is this just a straight up robots.txt problem? We addressed that a while ago and the number of results aren't going down. It's very possible that we still have it implemented incorrectly. What are we doing wrong and how do we start getting pages "un-indexed"?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MichaelWeisbaum0 -
List Your Top 3 SEO Strategies to Get Your Rankings Back
Hey guys, can you list your top 3 strategies (what you've been focused on - SEO) to get your rankings back, or rank well in general, in Panda. Don't be vague saying link building...we all know that, what type of link building specifically, for example. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PaulDylan0 -
My ranking spiked then died in the butt? why? Please help!
Hi guys, I have been persevering with this ranking for some time now and thought you might be able to help. Or direct me to where I can get help. I am learning a lot through SEOmoz but I am still very green. Basically on the 20th of the 12th we jumped up to a 2nd place listing and then dropped back down on the 17th of the 1st 2011. The site is http://mlb.broomeaccommodation.com.au and the search term is 'Broome Accommodation' as you can see it is a considerable drop and really affecting our bookings and sales figures. I have attached a link to a screen capture of the problem - http://exitforward.com/kimberleyaccomm/seomoz.png Interested to hear your thoughts and get some help on this frustrating matter Kind regards Bodie Czeladka
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Bodie0