11 replies to this topic

[ttw]

Our client didn't password-protect their staging server and now all these URLs are in Google.

The pages resides on the hosted CMS provider's site - which we don't have access to.

What's the easiest way to handle this - just wait until Google realizes that they can't access these pages any longer? My guess is that if we do wait, we should see those URLs start disappearing in about 4-6 weeks.

Any other suggestions? We may be able to get the CMS provider to add a Disallow message but the pages are already in the index (and the site is now password-protected) so I don't think that'll help.

Thanks so much.

[Jill]

So the pages are no longer accessible? Do they provide a 404? If so, then yeah, you should be all set.

[ttw]

Hi Jill: The links in SERPs go to a page that immediately requires login information to proceed. Should we just leave it alone?

[Jill]

How do the "go to" that page? Are they redirected? Or are they specifically linked to that exact URL?

[ttw]

There is a link in SERPs to the page - but when you go to the page a login box appears. It's been weeks and I thought that Google might have realized that the page is not available and remove it from its index but not so far.

Thanks Jill.

[Jill]

If the page doesn't provide a 404 not found http header response then google won't remove it.

[ttw]

These pages are not on the clients domain but on a subdomain of the cloud-based CMS platform which means we can't remove it in GWMTs. That means we can't do it on our own through GWMTs. I guess that's one draw-back to a system like this.

Thanks Jill. I'll see if they can remove the pages.

[piskie]

Is it the individual files/pages that's password protected or the Directory where they live ??

[ttw]

I don't know - I'm guessing it's the Directory.

[ttw]

I didn't know this earlier but Google provides a tool to remove content from someone else's site - has anyone used this tool?

http://support.googl...&answer=1663688

[Jill]

It looks like that's only for content that is violating some laws. Not really your situation.

[Michael Martinez]

I have used the URL removal tool in Webmaster Tools but if you cannot match the criteria (use of robots.txt to block the directory or delete the URLs) you're kind of stuck there.