Any expert in Digital Marketing and SEO has the primary objective of positioning their sites on Google to reach the
eyes of all users who search the search engine for a solution to their doubt, problem or pain.
However, what happens when we don’t want our URL to appear there? Well, this is possible by deindexing the website
and in this post we will tell you how to do it, in which cases it is necessary to carry out this action and what consequences it has.
Now, you might be wondering why a person or organization would want to deindex a web page from their domain in
the eyes of Google or other SERPs. But, deindexing is often an important practice to improve your Content
Marketing strategy or to offer a better user experience .
Below, we will explain everything from the beginning so that you learn what this practice refers to, its uses,
consequences and a step-by-step guide on how to do it correctly.
Ready? Read to the end!
What is deindexing a page?
Indexing applied to SEO refers to the belgium phone number list practice of allowing a URL to appear in
search engine results , that is, to be within Google’s index.
In simpler terms, it is the way you make a web page available so that search engines can find it, access it, and analyze it
to determine its relevance to users’ search intentions.
Well, deindexing is the opposite action, that is, applying a series of protocols—which we will talk about later— so
that GoogleBot does not crawl the URL.
What are the SEO effects of deindexing a URL?
Now, having clarified the main point key features of the Polymarket clone script of this blog post, many questions arise.
For example: “Isn’t this harmful to website traffic?” “Will deindexing reduce my sales?” Well, yes and no.
By deindexing we are telling search engines that they do not have to consider a page on our website for
their results and this may initially cause a drop in the monthly traffic we are used to.
Also, if we analyze the Google algorithm regarding deindexing, we can see that it takes into account the traffic of a URL
to “trust” another URL on the same site. Therefore, if we generate a random deindexing, we can affect sessions, sales or
the temporality of traffic.
However, this process cannot be done at random and there are practices that turn this action into a strategic activity to generate better business results. Do you want to know them? Keep reading!
In which cases is this action necessary?
The reasons for doing this can be very diverse aub directory and range from eliminating pages that do not meet the
organization’s quality standards , to “deleting” them in order to generate others that are more up to date with current conditions.
Therefore, we will separate by case the scenarios where deindexing can become a beneficial and productive practice for the blog, website or ecommerce of a person or company.
Thin content
Blogs often publish content that does not fulfill the purpose of adding value or solving a user’s problem, especially at
the beginning. So-called thin content refers to low-quality or “flat” content.
Well, if we have an indexed URL that is poor in form and substance , Google and other engines will understand that your site does not help the visitor and therefore will relegate you further and further.
Duplicates
Duplicated content does not have to mean plagiarism, in fact, there are cases where duplication occurs within the same website. But, whatever the reason for this event, Google does not look favorably on it .
While you could customize this content to substantially differentiate it from other similar content, it is necessary to
evaluate whether the end result of this modification will be relevant for SEO.
Canonicals could also be used, which allow Google to “redirect” its gaze to certain parts of the content to prevent it from
analyzing duplicate parts. But, as we mentioned in the previous paragraph, it would be necessary to determine whether the end justifies the means.
Crawling
One of the most common reasons for deindexing is precisely to promote crawling , that is, the crawling of pages.
An organization ‘s crawl budget is a finite element and must be optimized to benefit the SEO strategy.
By reducing or eliminating crawling on certain URLs on our site that are not relevant to the company’s results, we can
make efficient use of Google’s capital and attention so that it can focus on those that will produce profitability or improve our indicators.
If you know a little about SEO, you will know that once crawlers enter a site, they crawl all the content, yes and only if
they do, we do not tell them otherwise. So, you need to be prepared for this and structure their steps so that they recognize only what interests your strategy.
Cannibalization
When two or more URLs on the same site “fight” each other to win a single search intent or keyword , this is called
cannibalization and is a problem that deindexing can solve.
However, it is not the only alternative that exists, but if the content is old or generates serious positioning problems for
your website, deindexing may be the best solution to benefit the best of them.
If you’ve made it this far, it’s very possible that you’ve recognized that this practice, under the right conditions, can be a
strategic action to favor your SEO and your Content Marketing efforts , right?
Well, now we will tell you how to make it a reality.
How to deindex a page in Google?
When you decide to start deindexing work, there are several ways to do it. Below, we show you some of the most
common or common ways in the SEO world.
Meta Robots Tags
This type of tag allows Google to recognize what to do with that URL, since this HTML tag within the site in question
contains the code to give orders that can be:
- Index, follow : to be indexed and links must be followed by crawlers.
- Noindex, follow : should not be indexed and links should be followed.
- Noindex, nofollow : links should not be indexed and should not be followed.
- Index, nofollow : should be indexed and links should not be followed.
So, depending on the content, Google will be told what to do with that URL, and if you want to deindex it, either of the two in between would be appropriate.
Via robots.txt
Another way is to use the robots.txt code that is inside the URL that the engines use to crawl the site and know its
content, to tell Google that you want to deindex that page.
Using the “ Disallow ” command, Googlebots will be told not to access a specific URL or directory.
Since we do not have access to the site and cannot crawl its content, it will not be indexed in the vast majority of cases, with only a few exceptions.
