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        4. How to block "print" pages from indexing

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        After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

        How to block "print" pages from indexing

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        • dreadmichael
          dreadmichael last edited by

          I have a fairly large FAQ section and every article has a "print" button. Unfortunately, this is creating a page for every article which is muddying up the index - especially on my own site using Google Custom Search.

          Can you recommend a way to block this from happening?

          Example Article:

          http://www.knottyboy.com/lore/idx.php/11/183/Maintenance-of-Mature-Locks-6-months-/article/How-do-I-get-sand-out-of-my-dreads.html

          Example "Print" page:

          http://www.knottyboy.com/lore/article.php?id=052&action=print

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • NakulGoyal
            NakulGoyal @dreadmichael last edited by

            Donnie, I agree. However, we had the same problem on a website and here's what we did the canonical tag:

            Over a period of 3-4 weeks, all those print pages disappeared from the SERP. Now if I take a print URL and do a cache: for that page, it shows me the web version of that page.

            So yes, I agree the question was about blocking the pages from getting indexed. There's no real recipe here, it's about getting the right solution. Before canonical tag, robots.txt was the only solution. But now with canonical there (provided one has the time and resources available to implement it vs adding one line of text to robots.txt), you can technically 301 the pages and not have to stop/restrict the spiders from crawling them.

            Absolutely no offence to your solution in any way. Both are indeed workable solutions. The best part is that your robots.txt solution takes 30 seconds to implement since you provided the actually disallow code :), so it's better.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • dreadmichael
              dreadmichael @SEODinosaur last edited by

              Thanks Jennifer, will do! So much good information.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Dr-Pete
                Dr-Pete Staff @SEODinosaur last edited by

                Sorry, but I have to jump in - do NOT use all of those signals simultaneously. You'll make a mess, and they'll interfere with each other. You can try Robots.txt or NOINDEX on the page level - my experience suggests NOINDEX is much more effective.

                Also, do not nofollow the links yet - you'll block the crawl, and then the page-level cues (like NOINDEX) won't work. You can nofollow later. This is a common mistake and it will keep your fixes from working.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • jennita
                  jennita @SEODinosaur last edited by

                  Josh, please read my and Dr. Pete's comments below. Don't nofollow the links, but do use the meta noindex,follow on the page.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Dr-Pete
                    Dr-Pete Staff @SEODinosaur last edited by

                    Rel-canonical, in practice, does essentially de-index the non-canonical version. Technically, it's not a de-indexation method, but it works that way.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • dreadmichael
                      dreadmichael @SEODinosaur last edited by

                      You are right Donnie. I've "good answered" you too.

                      I've gone ahead and updated my robots.txt file. As soon as I am able, I will use no indexon the page, no follow on the links, and rel=canonical.

                      This is just what I needed, a quick fix until I can make a more permanent solution.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • SEODinosaur
                        SEODinosaur @dreadmichael last edited by

                        Your welcome : )

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • SEODinosaur
                          SEODinosaur @SEODinosaur last edited by

                          Although you are correct... there is still more then one way to skin a chicken.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • SEODinosaur
                            SEODinosaur @dreadmichael last edited by

                            But the spiders still run on the page and read the canonical link, however with the robot text the spiders will not.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • SEODinosaur
                              SEODinosaur @NakulGoyal last edited by

                              Yes, but Rel=Canonical does not block a page it only tells google which page to follow out of two pages.The question was how to block, not how to tell google which link to follow. I believe you gave credit to the wrong answer.

                              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonical_link_element

                              This is not fair. lol

                              dreadmichael Dr-Pete jennita 5 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • Dr-Pete
                                Dr-Pete Staff @jennita last edited by

                                I have to agree with Jen - Robots.txt isn't great for getting indexed pages out. It's good for prevention, but tends to be unreliable as a cure. META NOINDEX is probably more reliable.

                                One trick - DON'T nofollow the print links, at least not yet. You need Google to crawl and read the NOINDEX tags. Once the ?print pages are de-indexed, you could nofollow the links, too.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • NakulGoyal
                                  NakulGoyal @dreadmichael last edited by

                                  Yes, it's strongly recommended. It should be fairly simple to populate this tag with the "full" URL of the article based on the article ID. This approach will not only help you get rid of the duplicate content issue, but a canonical tag essentially works like a 301 redirect. So from all search engine perspective you are 301'ing your print pages to the real web urls without redirecting the actual user's who are browsing the print pages if they need to.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • dreadmichael
                                    dreadmichael @NakulGoyal last edited by

                                    Ya it is actually really useful. Unfortunately they are out of business now - so I'm hacking it on my own.

                                    I will take your advice. I've shamefully never used rel= canonical before - so now is a good time to start.

                                    NakulGoyal SEODinosaur 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • jennita
                                      jennita @SEODinosaur last edited by

                                      True but using robots.txt does not keep them out of the index. Only using "noindex" will do that.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • dreadmichael
                                        dreadmichael last edited by

                                        Thanks Donnie. Much appreciated!

                                        SEODinosaur 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • NakulGoyal
                                          NakulGoyal last edited by

                                          I actually remember Lore from a while ago. It's an interesting, easy to use FAQ CMS.

                                          Anyways, I would also recommend implementing Canonical Tags for any possible duplicate content issues. So whether it's the print or the web version, each one of them will contain a canonical tag pointing to the web url of that article in the section of your website.

                                          rel="canonical" href="http://www.knottyboy.com/lore/idx.php/11/183/Maintenance-of-Mature-Locks-6-months-/article/How-do-I-get-sand-out-of-my-dreads.html" />
                                          dreadmichael SEODinosaur 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • SEODinosaur
                                            SEODinosaur @dreadmichael last edited by

                                            http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/robotstxt

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                            • SEODinosaur
                                              SEODinosaur @dreadmichael last edited by

                                              Try This.

                                              User-agent: *

                                              Disallow: /*&action=print

                                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                              • SEODinosaur
                                                SEODinosaur @jennita last edited by

                                                Theres more then one way to skin a chicken.

                                                jennita SEODinosaur 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                                • jennita
                                                  jennita last edited by

                                                  Rather than using robots.txt I'd use a noindex,follow tag instead to the page. This code goes into the tag for each print page. And it will ensure that the pages don't get indexed but that the links are followed.

                                                  SEODinosaur Dr-Pete 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                                  • dreadmichael
                                                    dreadmichael @SEODinosaur last edited by

                                                    That would be great. Do you mind giving me an example?

                                                    SEODinosaur 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                                    • SEODinosaur
                                                      SEODinosaur last edited by

                                                      you can block in .robot text, every page that ends in action=print

                                                      dreadmichael 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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