Why is google not deindexing pages with the meta noindex tag?
-
On our website www.keystonepetplace.com we added the meta noindex tag to category pages that were created by the sorting function.
Google no longer seems to be adding more of these pages to the index, but the pages that were already added are still in the index when I check via site:keystonepetplace.com
Here is an example page: http://www.keystonepetplace.com/dog/dog-food?limit=50
How long should it take for these pages to disappear from the index?
-
Google might have already crawled the pages but not indexed them yet. Be patient , if you have enough links coming in and the pages are less than 3 levels deep they will all be crawled and indexed in no time.
-
I guess it depends on the urgency of your situation. If you were just trying to clean things up then it's okay to wait for Google to re-crawl and solve the problem. But if you have been affected by panda and your site is not ranking then I personally would consider that an urgent enough need to use the tool.
-
This link almost makes it seem like I shouldn't use the webmaster tools removal.
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1269119
-
The crawlers have so many billions of webpages to get to. We have more than 50,000 on our site; there's about 8,000 that they check more regularly than the others - some are just really deep on the site and hard to get to.
-
You can remove entire category directories from the index in one command using the tool. But the urls won't be removed from the cache, just the index. To remove them from the cache you'll need to enter each url individually. I think that if you are trying to clear things up for Panda reasons, just removing from the index is enough. However, I'm currently trying to decide if it will speed things up to remove from the cache as well.
-
Ok. That makes sense. I wonder why it takes so long? I'll start the long process of the manual removal.
-
Streamline Metrics has got it right.
I've seen pages take MONTHS to drop out of the index after being noindexed. It's best to use the URL removal tool in WMT (not to be confused with the disavow tool) to tell Google to not only deindex the pages but to remove them from the cache as well. I have found that when you do this the pages are gone within 12 hours.
-
In your experience how long does this normally take?
-
Yes it was around December 2nd or 3rd that we added the noindex tags. It just seemed like google wasn't removing any pages yet from the index. It did stop google from adding more of these pages though.
-
It all depends on how long it takes Google to re-crawl those pages with the no index tag on them.
I would do this along with the steps you have already taken in order to help speed the process up if you are in a hurry
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1663419
-
Do you know when you added the noindex tags? Google will need to recrawl the pages to see the noindex tags before removing them. I just looked at one your category pages and it looks like it was cached by Google on December 1st, and there was no noindex tag on that page. Depending on how big your site is and how often your site is crawled will determine when they will be removed from the index. Here's Google's official explanation -
"When we see the noindex meta tag on a page, Google will completely drop the page from our search results, even if other pages link to it. Other search engines, however, may interpret this directive differently. As a result, a link to the page can still appear in their search results.
Note that because we have to crawl your page in order to see the noindex meta tag, there's a small chance that Googlebot won't see and respect the noindex meta tag. If your page is still appearing in results, it's probably because we haven't crawled your site since you added the tag. (Also, if you've used your robots.txt file to block this page, we won't be able to see the tag either.)
If the content is currently in our index, we will remove it after the next time we crawl it. To expedite removal, use the URL removal request tool in Google Webmaster Tools."
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93710
-
Or canonical or by robots.txt
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
-
Google Ignoring region settings on contact pages
Hi All, I've got an issue with multi-region contact pages. For example, Google favors the UAE other region contact pages for French region searches, when I only want /fr/contact. I've used a Rel-con and set up the website to be pointing to the correct regions.
Technical SEO | | WattbikeSEO0 -
My Home Page meta title on Google isn't what it should be
Hey guys My website is http://www.oxfordmeetsfifth.com According to SEOcentro, my website should appear to Google as Fashion Tips for Women | Oxford Meets Fifth. I have used the Yoast plugin and force rewrote titles to ensure that is the home page meta title. It also appears correctly in browser. Could anyone advise why this is the case? Thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | OxfordMeetsFifth0 -
Meta tags
Hello, Does anyone know how long it takes for the meta descriptions to show up in Google? This because I just updated my meta descriptions for the whole website, but while moz toolbar is showing it correctly, google is still showing the old ones, even if i used the see as googlebot tool from webmaster tools. Thanks for a reply
Technical SEO | | socialengaged
Eugenio | Social Engagement0 -
W3C html5 meta tags invalid?
Dear Mozers, we get errors when validating meta tags in html5. I know it's experimental and not all metas are valid, but how do you handle this? Leave the tags out? here are some examples: `…name="DC.title" content="my content...xyc.." /**>**` ``` `>` ``` `>` ``` `>` ``` `>` `>` I tried to find some information but couldn't. What would you do? Thanks a lot, Barbara
Technical SEO | | barbara-f0 -
How do I get google to index the right pages with the right key word?
Hello I notice that even though I have a site map google is indexing the wrong pages under the wrong key words. As a result its not as relevant and is not ranking properly.
Technical SEO | | ursalesguru0 -
Should I include A Description Tag for an article page
Hi, I am wondering if i should include a description tag for an article page where the news on that page will change around five times a day. I am not sure if to fill a description in for local news or to leave it blank so the search engines pick up the latest local news and then the next day they show the latest local news again in the search engines instead of having a static description of the news page. any help would be great
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Optimum title and description meta tag length
Hi all, I have read that a title tag and description tag length of 69 and 156 characters respectively, should be used as this is all that Google will show in the search results, but that search engine robots will read longer titles and descriptions and additional characters will have an effect on ranking algorithms. However, is there any SEO benefit in making title and description tags longer to include more keywords to aid ranking, even though the latter part won't be visible in the results. I have read elsewhere on this forum that there may be concerns with regards to keyword dilution, but what about keyword reinforcement, i.e. by a repetition of the main keyword at the end of the title/description (I mean in a readable manner here, not 'stuffed')? Thanks in advance, Gareth
Technical SEO | | gdavies090319770 -
What pages of my site does Google rank as the most important?
If I type site:youtube.com into Google, are the results listed by what Google considers to be the most important pages of the site? If I change my sitemap should this order change? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Seaward-Group0