Getting Tags De-Indexed

[OKFarmgirl]

I've mentioned that my site lost all SERPs in the update. Well, I think I figured out why, and now I have a question:

My sitemap was pointing to not just my articles, but also my categories and tags. So, the categories and tags of each article showed up as duplicate content in Google (I had upwards of 10 tags on some articles - maybe a bad idea for SEO, I'm not sure). So the WebDevs at the G forums said that was probably my problem.

So. I removed tags and categories from my sitemap generator, and now my question is, how do I get those tags and categories de-indexed? Or is it too little too late, and the articles I've already written are screwed? Can I just regenerate my sitemap (which I'm thinking now that I haven't done yet) and then ping it with pingomatic? I've got 50 articles on there now, and I REALLY don't want to lose them in the SERPs forever.

Thanks!

[StoneWilson]

Add this in your robots.txt: Disallow: /tag/

[OKFarmgirl]

The sitemap generator does that for me. I turned off tags and categories and my new sitemap doesn't include them. My question is, will they go away in Google? How long or what can I do to get them de-indexed so Google doesn't think my site is packed with duplicate content?

[jagbani]

yes add tag in disallow in robots.txt file its best idea to get deindexed in google.. otherwise if you are using wordpress then use seo pack

[OKFarmgirl]

and for categories, would it be
Disallow: /category/
?

[Brian Alaway]

You can add the Disallow: /tag/ to your robots.txt BUT if the problem posts/pages have been cached, you may have to request removal of those urls by using the url removal tool in webmaster tools.
Remove a "Cached" version of a page from Google - Webmaster Tools Help

Once you're done that then a suggestion would be to clean up your tags, leaving 2 or 3 tags maximum for each page/post. Avoid tag stuffing. Make the tags user friendly so they'll add value for users searching your site, similar to categories.

[OKFarmgirl]

I haven't really tried to "tag stuff" - I just put in tags I thought were relevant to the article. But I guess I could hone it down to two or three main keywords. I put them in the robots.txt, but Google Tools says they don't see it (I click on it and it's there).

It also has this error re: my sitemap:

Paths don't match
We've detected that you submitted your Sitemap using a URL path that includes the www prefix (for instance, IANA — Example domains). However, the URLs listed inside your Sitemap don't use the www prefix (for instance, IANA — Example domains).

But again, I click the link I provided and there it is. Not sure what to do.

ETA: I also tried submitting it without the www in front of the domain, still waiting on results.

[OKFarmgirl]

Also, my sitemap generator says NOT to put a manual robots.txt file in the blog directory. Is this going to screw something up?

[Brian Alaway]

Is this a WordPress site or a static site?

[OKFarmgirl]

Wordpress site with a few static pages (homepage is static).

[WealthWithin]

Why do you need to block tags and category pages in robots.txt? Wordpress Devs built them for a reason. Unless you're stuffing more than 4-5 tags per article it should be fine.

To remove URLs from index, you can use Google webmaster tools.
But the best thing to do is 301 redirect them to the relevant article page through your .htaccess file, so that they will be gradually removed from the search engines. (including Bing and Yahoo)

[Brian Alaway]

Originally Posted by OKFarmgirl

It also has this error re: my sitemap:

Paths don't match
We've detected that you submitted your Sitemap using a URL path that includes the www prefix (for instance, IANA — Example domains). However, the URLs listed inside your Sitemap don't use the www prefix (for instance, IANA — Example domains).

But again, I click the link I provided and there it is. Not sure what to do.

ETA: I also tried submitting it without the www in front of the domain, still waiting on results.

Is it possible you've specified a path in robots.txt to your sitemap.xml file using www in the url when in fact your site is being displayed without the www?

[OKFarmgirl]

I went through and cleaned up my tags and categories so each article only has one category and less than 5 tags.

Is it possible you've specified a path in robots.txt to your sitemap.xml file using www in the url when in fact your site is being displayed without the www?

Yes, this appears to be the case. I went back through and changed this in Google and the update was successful. Everything looks good now, so I'll have to see whether my new sitemap and tag removal helps my rankings. Because there are SCADS of links from those tags and categories, I'm not sure it would be feasible to remove all of those URLS from Google. I'll wait it out and see. Thanks for your help!

[soharox]

Originally Posted by OKFarmgirl

Wordpress site with a few static pages (homepage is static).

yaa.its static pages

[yukon]

I doubt very much that your category + tag pages are duplicate pages of your article pages.

Are both your category + tag pages showing 100% of your article text (If any of the text at all)?

I get all my pages indexed & ranking (post, page, category, & tags) never had a problem. Just make sure to have a unique:

1) Page Title
2) Meta Description
3) Canonical Tag

Do the above for every single page on your site, & they will all rank If you support them with internal + external links.

Don't listen to a person on a Google hosted forum about SEO (lol), they won't tell you anything about how to seo your site.

Originally Posted by OKFarmgirl

I've mentioned that my site lost all SERPs in the update. Well, I think I figured out why, and now I have a question:

My sitemap was pointing to not just my articles, but also my categories and tags. So, the categories and tags of each article showed up as duplicate content in Google (I had upwards of 10 tags on some articles - maybe a bad idea for SEO, I'm not sure). So the WebDevs at the G forums said that was probably my problem.

So. I removed tags and categories from my sitemap generator, and now my question is, how do I get those tags and categories de-indexed? Or is it too little too late, and the articles I've already written are screwed? Can I just regenerate my sitemap (which I'm thinking now that I haven't done yet) and then ping it with pingomatic? I've got 50 articles on there now, and I REALLY don't want to lose them in the SERPs forever.

Thanks!

[GeorgR.]

Proper use of tag or category archives is to use EXCERPTS, Never, never use the full article showing on tag or category archive pages.

You can do that easily with the right WP theme...

Furthermore, you would use nofollow/noindex tag..either on category pages or tag pages (depending on your site)..thats what they are for.

[StoneWilson]

I thought you should spend more time on wordpress forum and be more careful when you try do edit the program. I mean, you asked so detailed questions, it's really hard to understand what you were talking about.

[OKFarmgirl]

Originally Posted by StoneWilson

I thought you should spend more time on wordpress forum and be more careful when you try do edit the program. I mean, you asked so detailed questions, it's really hard to understand what you were talking about.

Yeah, I'm not sure what that means.

I doubt very much that your category + tag pages are duplicate pages of your article pages.

Are both your category + tag pages showing 100% of your article text (If any of the text at all)?

Regarding whether tags show the whole article or part, I'm not sure how to fix that. I mean if you go to a tag (like "tomatoes"), it will show all articles in with that tag in their entirety. Same for categories. How do I truncate them? Is there a plugin?

[Moneyerr]

You can be indexed by only using poor responses to your tags.