Test site is live on Google but it duplicates existing site...
-
Hello - my developer has just put a test site up on Google which duplicates my existing site (main url is www.mydomain.com and he's put it up on www.mydomain.com/test/ "...I’ve added /test/ to the disallowed urls in robots.txt" is how he put it.
So all the site URLs are content replicated and live on Google with /test/ added so he can block them in robots. In all other ways the test site duplicates all content, etc (until I get around to making some tweaks next week, that is).
Is this a bad idea or should I be OK. Last thing I want is a duplicate content or some other Google penalty just because I'm tweaking an existing website! Thanks in advance, Luke
-
Thanks Martijn - have done all I can to block Google indexing now - Web developer was under the impression he had done what was needed but SEO mindset always makes me delve deeper! Glad I did!
-
You could protect the /test/ directory with a username / password by using .htpasswd.
This will prevent Google crawling your site and saves you your Crawl Budget. Make sure you don't link to the test/protected pages.You can remove the /test/ from Google by requesting a removal in Google Webmaster Tools. Otherwise there is a possibility that users visit some pages in the /test/ dir and receive a 404 error when you finished the tweaks.
-
Thanks Schwaab - good suggestions there!
-
I would add some no index, no follow tags to all of those pages as well just to be safe. I've had Google index some stuff I've had blocked via my robots.txt in the past. Also, make sure if you update your sitemap that you don't accidentally include these test URLs.
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
-
My Website No Longer Appears in Mobile Google Search but Does in Desktop...Why Is This?
For a long time my website has appeared in both desktop and mobile search in Google. Yet recently it has stopped appearing in mobile yet still on desktop. Any ideas why this is happening and how to rectify it please? Many Thanks.
Algorithm Updates | | WSIDW0 -
SEO having different effects for different sites
Hi, I hope this isn't a dumb question, but I was asked by a local company to have a look at their website and make any suggestions on how to strengthen and improve their rankings. After time spent researching their competitors, and analysing their own website I was able to determine that they are actually in a good position. The have a well structured site that follows the basic search rules, they add new relevant content regularly and are working on their social strategy. Most of their pages are rated A within Moz, and they spend a lot of time tweaking the site. When I presented this to them, they asked why there are sites that rank above them that don't seem to take as much care over their website. For example, one of their main competitors doesn't engage in any social networking, and rarely adds content to their site. I was just wondering if anyone could shed any light on why this happens? I appreciate there's probably no simple answer, but it would be great to hear some different input. Many thanks
Algorithm Updates | | dantemple880 -
Links from high Domain authority sites
I have a relatively uncompetitive niche ranking around number 6 for my keywords. Would getting a few links from some Moz DA 80-90 and DA 90-100 sites help my rankings a lot? Some of the pages linking to me from these sites might be deep in the site pretty far away from the home page with pagerank of "unranked" or a grayed out bar and these pages linking to me might not have many links at all other than from the internal links of the site itself and would have a Moz PA of 10 or 20. Would these pass much pagerank or authority to my site or would they not be worth going after? These links to my site would be in context on a blog. Thanks mozzers!
Algorithm Updates | | Ron100 -
Google Love and Bing Hate
I have a site that is currently ranking 6th for a certain key phrase. But when i search on Bing it is on page 4. The result on google is for the homepage and the bing result is a search result. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am not logged into to google when searching but we do use adwords.
Algorithm Updates | | SoundinTheory0 -
Is it normal to receive 2 mails from Google?
I filed a reconsideration request that was answered in less than a week. Subsequently I was told that no manual penalty was in place but various algorithm factors might be causing my heavy drops in ranking. Then I got a second email which was even more specific. This was great, really heartening stuff and a total surprise as it was very helpful. Is it normal to receive 2 emails from Google with such clear information? I have been very pleased by the comments they have made as it has shown me that they're more customer focused than I had been led to believe by all the research I had done pre reconsideration request. Has anyone else had a clear outline of what they needed to fix and has their site subsequently rebounded post fixing?
Algorithm Updates | | swimwithfishes0 -
Rankings changing every couple of MINUTES in Google?
We've been experiencing some unusual behaviour in the Google.co.uk SERPs recently... Basically, the ranking of some of our websites for certain keywords appears to be changing by the minute. For example, doing a search for "our keyword" might show us at #20. Then a few minutes later, doing the same search shows us at #14, and then the same search a few minutes later shows us at #26, and then sometimes we're not ranked at all, etc etc. I know the algorithm changes a lot, but does it really change every couple of minutes? Has anyone else experienced this kind of behaviour in the SERPs? What could be causing it to happen?
Algorithm Updates | | d4online0 -
Will google punish us for using formulaic keyword-rich content on different pages on our site?
We have 100 to 150 words of SEO text per page on www.storitz.com. Our challenge is that we are a storage property aggregator with hundreds of metros. We have to distinguish each city with relevant and umique text. If we use a modular approach where we mix and match pre-written (by us) content, demographic and location oriented text in an attempt to create relevant and unique text for multiple (hundreds) of pages on our site, will we be devalued by Google?
Algorithm Updates | | Storitz0