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  4. Google indexing despite robots.txt block

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Google indexing despite robots.txt block

Technical SEO
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  • zeepartner
    zeepartner last edited by May 5, 2014, 4:33 AM

    Hi

    This subdomain has about 4'000 URLs indexed in Google, although it's blocked via robots.txt: https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&q=site%3Awww1.swisscom.ch&oq=site%3Awww1.swisscom.ch

    This has been the case for almost a year now, and it does not look like Google tends to respect the blocking in http://www1.swisscom.ch/robots.txt

    Any clues why this is or what I could do to resolve it?

    Thanks!

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • john4math
      john4math last edited by May 7, 2014, 2:14 PM May 7, 2014, 2:14 PM

      It sounds like Martijn solved your problem, but I still wanted to add that robots.txt exclusions keep search bots from reading pages that are disallowed, but it does not stop those pages from being returned in search results.  When those pages do appear, a lot of times they'll have a page description along the lines of "A description of this page is not available due to this sites robots.txt".

      If you want to ensure that pages are kept out of search engines results, you have to use the noindex meta tag on each page.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • zeepartner
        zeepartner @Martijn_Scheijbeler last edited by May 7, 2014, 12:24 PM May 7, 2014, 12:24 PM

        Yes, I think the crucial point is that addressing googlebot wouldn't resolve the specific problem I have here.

        I would have tried adressing googlebot otherwise. But to be honest, I wouldn't have expected a much different result than specifying all user agents. Googlebot should be part of that exclusion in any case.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Martijn_Scheijbeler
          Martijn_Scheijbeler @Kingof5 last edited by May 7, 2014, 11:42 AM May 7, 2014, 11:42 AM

          I thought that value was a bit outdated, turns out to be still accepted. Although it probably only address this issue for him in Google and I assume it will still remain one in other search engines.

          Besides that the problem offered a way better solution in allowing Google not on the HTTPS site.

          zeepartner 1 Reply Last reply May 7, 2014, 12:24 PM Reply Quote 1
          • Kingof5
            Kingof5 @Martijn_Scheijbeler last edited by May 7, 2014, 11:30 AM May 7, 2014, 11:30 AM

            Specifically for Googlebot. I'm pretty surprised people would disagree - Stephan Spencer recommended this in a personal conversation with me.

            Martijn_Scheijbeler 1 Reply Last reply May 7, 2014, 11:42 AM Reply Quote 0
            • Martijn_Scheijbeler
              Martijn_Scheijbeler @Kingof5 last edited by May 6, 2014, 10:54 AM May 6, 2014, 10:54 AM

              Did you mean a noindex tags for robots or a specific one for googlebot? With the second one I probably get the downvotes.

              Kingof5 1 Reply Last reply May 7, 2014, 11:30 AM Reply Quote 1
              • Kingof5
                Kingof5 @Kingof5 last edited by May 6, 2014, 10:49 AM May 6, 2014, 10:49 AM

                People who are disagreeing with this, explain your reasoning.

                Martijn_Scheijbeler 1 Reply Last reply May 6, 2014, 10:54 AM Reply Quote 0
                • Kingof5
                  Kingof5 last edited by May 5, 2014, 10:42 AM May 5, 2014, 10:42 AM

                  A noindex tag specific to Googlebot would also be a good idea.

                  Kingof5 1 Reply Last reply May 6, 2014, 10:49 AM Reply Quote -3
                  • Martijn_Scheijbeler
                    Martijn_Scheijbeler @zeepartner last edited by May 5, 2014, 6:20 AM May 5, 2014, 6:20 AM

                    You're welcome, it was mostly due to noticing that the first snippet, the homepage, had no snippet and the rest of the pages did have one. That led me to looking at their URL structure. Good luck fixing it!

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • zeepartner
                      zeepartner @Martijn_Scheijbeler last edited by May 5, 2014, 6:14 AM May 5, 2014, 6:14 AM

                      100 points for you Martijn, thanks! I'm pretty sure you've found the problem and I'll go about fixing it. Gotta get used to having https used more frequently now...

                      Martijn_Scheijbeler 1 Reply Last reply May 5, 2014, 6:20 AM Reply Quote 1
                      • Martijn_Scheijbeler
                        Martijn_Scheijbeler last edited by May 5, 2014, 6:14 AM May 5, 2014, 5:47 AM

                        Hi Phillipp,

                        You almost got me with this one, but it's fairly simple. In your question you're pointing at the robots.txt of your HTTP page. But it's mostly your HTTP**S **pages that are indexed and if you look at that robots.txt file it's pretty clear why these pages are indexed: https://www1.swisscom.ch/robots.txt all the pages that are indexed match with one of your Allow statements are the complete Disallow. Hopefully that provides you with the insight on how to fix your issue.

                        zeepartner 1 Reply Last reply May 5, 2014, 6:14 AM Reply Quote 4
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