Google Webmaster Tools: Remove URL

Marketing
1

We have put in a request with Google to remove our subdomain “http://dev.corelearningresources.com” from Google’s SERPS. This is because our dev subdomain is for development purposes and we don’t want traffic to reach this by accident.

The request was put in on October 16th, yet the sub domain remains up on Google if you type “site:dev.corelearningresources.com”
http://www.google.ca/search?q=site%3Adev.corelearningresources.com&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
(with over 6,000 results)

The robots.txt file has been added to the root folder (public_html/dev/) for that subdomain as well, with
User-Agent: *
Disallow: /

To prevent the bots from indexing our site. The robots.txt file was also added on October 16th.
We are just wondering if we will need to wait longer for our site to be fully removed from Google, or if something went wrong with our removal request?

The status on Google Webmaster tools says “removed” for that URL but it’s still showing up on Google. We are hoping to remove the dev subdomain and all of the pages within the dev subdomain from Google.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

2

You have done the correct things, it just might take a little while to completely disappear from the rankings.

If possible I would make it password protected so at least you do not have to worry about users accessing it while it still shows in the rankings.

3

Password protection is a great idea, what about a 301 or 410 as well?

4

The dev subdomain is still indexed on Google, even over a month after I have put the request in to remove it. Any ideas why it’s taking so long for Google to remove it? And is there a phone number I can call to talk with Google about this directly?

Thanks,

5

Have you tried using the Google Content Removal form in Webmaster Tools?

6

Yes, indeed - I used the Google Content Removal form in Webmaster Tools quite a while ago now.
It has been almost 2 months since my initial request for Google to do this and the dev subdomain is still indexed on Google.
On webmaster tools it says:
“URL: dev._____.com
Status: Removed
Removal Type: Outdated page removal
Requested: Oct 16, 2011”

I also did another one on November 9th and that one says “Status: Removed” for the dev subdomain too - yet the dev site is still indexed on Google?
Any ideas?

7

At this point, I would write a post in the Google Webmaster Help Forums to see if they can help you.

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters

8

Did you consider of renaming the directory “dev.corelearningresources.com” to “devs.corelearningresources.com” for example?
I had once a confidential .PDF on my fileserver, nothing pointed to that file but google happened to acquire it and was online. I noticed it with the google webmaster tool having incoming traffic for unknow keywords. I had no solution but to delete this particular file on the server. If it’s an emergency for your subdomain .dev you must rename it or put a password protection on it. Sadly it may still appear for up to 3months on the search engines…

9

Interesting… There is indeed a password on the dev site for the time being. I guess we will wait and see if it’s off by January 16th then? (3 months)
Thanks for the help!

10