Removing CSS & JS Files from Index
-
Hi,
Google has indexed a few .CSS and .JS files that belong to our WordPress plugins and themes. I had them blocked via robots, but realized this doesn't prevent indexation (and can likely hurt us since Google wants to access these files).
I've since removed the robots instructions, submitted a removal request via Search Console, but want to make sure they don't come back.
Is there a way to put a noindex tag within .CSS and .JS files? Or should I do something with .htaccess instead?
-
I figured .htaccess would be the best route. Thank you for researching and confirming. I appreciate it.
-
Hi Tim,
Assigning a noindex tag to these files will not block them, only prevent them from showing in SERPs. This is the intended goal and the reason I deleted my robots.txt file which prevented crawling.
-
There's quite a big difference between crawling directives, which block and indexing directives. This article by (former?) Moz user S_ebastian_ is a good foundation read.
This article at developers.google.com is a good second read. If I'm understanding it right, Google thinks in terms of crawling directives vs indexing / serving directives.
My attempt at <tl rl="">:</tl>
crawling = looking, using in any way :: controlled via robots.txt
indexing / serving = indexing, archiving, displaying snippets in results, etc :: controlled via html meta tags or web server htaccess (or similar for other web servers).
I'm not convinced yet, that asking for noindex via htaccess causes the same sort of grief that deny in robots.txt causes.
-
I would seriously think again when it comes to blocking/no-indexing your CSS and JS files - Google has in the past stated that if they cannot fully render your site properly then this could lead to poorer rankings.
You will also likely get notifications in your Search Console as errors for this too.
Check out this great article from July this year which goes into more details.
-
I haven't encountered undesirable .css or .js indexing myself (yet), but as you surmised, maybe this htaccess directive might be worth trying?
<filesmatch ".(txt|log|xml|css|js)$"="">Header set X-Robots-Tag "noindex"</filesmatch>
Google seems to support it
-
Unless I'm severely misreading the links provided, which I've read before, it seems Google is stating that they read, render, and sometimes index .CSS and .JS files. Here's an article written a week after the second article you posted.
The aforementioned WordPress plugin and theme files hosted on my server are indeed showing up in Google SERPs.
I do not want to prevent Googlebot from reaching these files as they're needed for optimal site performance, but I do want them to be no-indexed. Thus, I don't want robots.txt to prevent crawling, only indexing.
Let me know if I'm misunderstanding.
-
TL;DR - You're hesitated about problem that doesn't exist.
Googlebot doesn't index CSS or JS files. They index text files, HTML, PDF, DOC, XLS, etc. But doesn't index style sheets or javascript files.
All you need in WordPress is to create blank robots.txt file where WP is installed with this content:
User-agent: *
Disallow:
Sitemap: http://site/sitemap-file-name.xmlAnd that's all. This is explain many times:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.bg/2014/05/understanding-web-pages-better.html
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.bg/2014/10/updating-our-technical-webmaster.html
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
-
Are all tabs the result of JS?
Hey all, Bit of a novice here, so bare with me. We have a page that has a lot of content in a tabular format that struggles to rank. I created a similar page, without the tabular format, which vastly outranks it, despite having a miniscule backlink profile in comparison. Now, I've always been under the impression that anything interactive on a website, like tabs, are the result of JS. However, I can't see any JS in the code (but as mentioned, I'm far from an expert). Code below. Description insert copy here, click on [insert anchor text](/media/MODULES AVAILABLE 2017-18.xlsx)
Technical SEO | | SwanseaMedicine
more copy here. Anyone able to shed any light? Cheers, Rhys0 -
Site not indexed after 1 month
Hi people, I have been working on this new website for a month now and it has still not been indexed, here is a link: http://bit.ly/HNgzKG Can any of you spot anything wrong with it? I have tried submitting and also submitted an xml sitemap but still no joy.
Technical SEO | | Eavesy0 -
Site Indexed but not Cached?
I launched a new website ~2 weeks ago that seems to be indexed but not cached. According to Google Webmaster most of the pages are indexed and I see them appear when I search site:www.xxx.com. However, when I type into the URL - cache:www.xxx.com I get a 404 error page from Google.
Technical SEO | | theLotter
I've checked more established websites and they are cached so I know I am checking correctly here... Why would my site be indexed but not in the cache?0 -
Pages removed from Google index?
Hi All, I had around 2,300 pages in the google index until a week ago. The index removed a load and left me with 152 submitted, 152 indexed? I have just re-submitted my sitemap and will wait to see what happens. Any idea why it has done this? I have seen a drop in my rankings since. Thanks
Technical SEO | | TomLondon0 -
301 & backlinks
Apologies if my question sounds like a school Maths lesson 😉 If you have 2 sites: Site 1) is linked to by sites A,B & C Site 2) is linked to by sites X,Y & Z You then 301 redirect site 2 to site 1. Most of the juice from site 2 (obtained from links X,Y,Z) should be passed over to site 1. But what if site 2 is linked to by the same sites A,B,C as site 1 instead of X,Y,Z. Since both sites have exactly the same links will the same, less, or any weight be passed over by the 301 redirect? Many thanks.
Technical SEO | | martyc1 -
File from godaddy.com
Hi, One of our client has received a file from godaddy.com where his site is hosted. Here is the message from the client- "i submitted my site for Search Engine Visibility,but they got some issue on the site need to be fixed. i tried myself could not fix it" The site in question is - http://allkindofessays.com/ Is there any problem with the site ? Contents of the file - bplist00Ó k 0_ WebSubframeArchives_ WebSubresources_ WebMainResource L x Ï Ö Ý ] ¨ ¯ ¼ Û 6 SÓ @ F¡ Ó / :¡ Ó )¡ Ò ¡ Ô _ WebResourceResponse_ WebResourceData_ WebResourceMIMEType^WebResourceURLO cbplist00Ô Z[X$versionX$objectsY$archiverT$top † ¯ "()0 12DEFGHIJKLMNOPTUU$nullÝ !R$6S$10R$2R$7R$3S$11R$8V$classR$4R$9R$0R$5R$1€ € € € € € € € Ó #$%& [NS.relativeWNS.base€ € € _ ¢http://tags.bluekai.com/site/2748?redir=http%3A%2F%2Fsegment-pixel.invitemedia.com%2Fset_partner_uid%3FpartnerID%3D84%26partnerUID%3D%24_BK_UUID%26sscs_active%3D1Ò*+,-Z$classnameX$classesUNSURL¢./UNSURLXNSObject#A´ þ¹ –5 ÈÓ 3456=WNS.keysZNS.objects€ ¦789:;<€ €€ € €€ ¦>?@ABC€ € € € € € \Content-TypeSP3PVServerTDate^Content-LengthYBK-ServerYimage/gif_ nCP="NOI DSP COR CUR ADMo DEVo PSAo PSDo OUR SAMo BUS UNI NAV", policyref="http://tags.bluekai.com/w3c/p3p.xml"_ Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS)_ Sat, 10 Sep 2011 20:23:21 GMTR62T87dfÒ*+QR_ NSMutableDictionary£QS/\NSDictionary >Ò*+VW_ NSHTTPURLResponse£XY/_ NSHTTPURLResponse]NSURLResponse_ NSKeyedArchiverÑ]_ WebResourceResponse€ # - 2 7 R X s v z } € ƒ ‡ Š ‘ ” — š ¢ ¤ ¦ ¨ ª ¬ ® ° ² ´ ¶ ¸ ¿ Ë Ó Õ × Ù ~ ƒ Ž — ¦ ¯ ¸ º Á É Ô Ö Ý ß á ã å ç é ð ò ô ö ø ú ü ( 2 < Å å è í ò 4 8 L Z l o … ^ ‡O >GIF89a ÿÿÿ!ÿ NETSCAPE2.0 !ù , L ;Yimage/gif_ ¢http://tags.bluekai.com/site/2748?redir=http%3A%2F%2Fsegment-pixel.invitemedia.com%2Fset_partner_uid%3FpartnerID%3D84%26partnerUID%3D%24_BK_UUID%26sscs_active%3D1Õ _ WebResourceTextEncodingName_ WebResourceFrameNameO 6
Technical SEO | | seoug_20050 -
HTML and no index, follow
I’m just learning about HTML and I was wondering can a tag be put into a dynamic HTML page?
Technical SEO | | EricVallee340