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How To? Question: Indexing only part of a site

by PandoraH
3 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I am in a weird position, and after researching the forums I've not come up with anything conclusive regarding my dilemma.

This morning I registered a new domain. Webhosting services are in the works through my employer's web hosting service. I'm not quite sure what I am getting with this service, but know I will have what I need RIGHT NOW: the ability to install, configure and admin a self-hosted Wordpress blog that I need ASAP.

Having said this, I plan to launch the blog either like this: blog.domainname.com OR domainname.com/blog. From a standpoint of SEO and indexing ONLY that URL, I am not sure which, if either, is better.

The point being that the site launch date for www.domain.com and domain.com is months away. NOTHING will be installed on the root domain for months to come.

Because of this, I am really concerned about the effects of this involving rank, SEO and Google and the root domain. I'll be using the site for a temporary blog, email and some testing, but not launching the actual OFFICIAL content for the root domain until sometime this fall.

My questions are thus:
  • What actions should I take to avoid problems with getting the main site indexed until this fall?
  • Can I rank the temporary blog URL without damaging the main domain listing?
  • And gosh in general, have I forgotten something?

I know about the robots.txt file (or whatever is, I need to look it up, since I've never needed it before ).

I just don't know off hand if I can input just parts of the site I want indexed or not, if there are other things I should do, and so on.
#google #indexing #part #question #ranking #site #subdomain
  • Profile picture of the author PandoraH
    I'm still not sure if this will be safe. In fact, after revising my search terms in Google, the only discussion online seems to be about blocking a site entirely, or blocking parts of a page, and none of these discussions relate to SEO.

    I have located a decent page that displays the correct code for the robots.txt file. Should anyone be interested, here is a link: Robot.txt file code.

    Apparently this is a slow period on WF, it being summer and all, so I'll just cross my fingers that somebody in WF has dealt with this at some point.

    To reiterate my question, I'm looking to understand the long term SEO ramifications of blocking all search robots on www.domain.com and domain.com, but allow robots to search subdomain.domainname.com or domainname.com/subdirectory.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    Originally Posted by PandoraH View Post


    My questions are thus:
    • What actions should I take to avoid problems with getting the main site indexed until this fall?
    • Can I rank the temporary blog URL without damaging the main domain listing?
    • And gosh in general, have I forgotten something?
    1. I'd put the blog on the side (domain.com/blog/).

    2. Why make it temporary? More to your question though, given the questions you're asking and not knowing exactly what you're going to do, it's unlikely you'll rank the "temporary" blog anyway. It won't hurt your main domain unless you're doing something the search engines forbid.

    If you do rank the "temporary" blog, you can always use a 301 redirect back to the main page so anyone finding it in the search engines will be redirected to your main page.

    As for your second post, once you remove the robots block the search engines will index your page the next time they come back.

    Hope that helps.
    Signature

    Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

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    • Profile picture of the author PandoraH
      Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill View Post

      1. I'd put the blog on the side (domain.com/blog/).

      2. Why make it temporary? More to your question though, given the questions you're asking and not knowing exactly what you're going to do, it's unlikely you'll rank the "temporary" blog anyway. It won't hurt your main domain unless you're doing something the search engines forbid.

      If you do rank the "temporary" blog, you can always use a 301 redirect back to the main page so anyone finding it in the search engines will be redirected to your main page.

      As for your second post, once you remove the robots block the search engines will index your page the next time they come back.

      Hope that helps.
      Dennis, thanks a ton for your reply. It showed up just as I was explaining what I need to the co-worker who is setting my webhost service. It's temporary because I need to run a small WP blog RIGHT now to promote my freelance business. I don't actually need to rank it, as I'll be directing people to it directly.

      In the long run, I won't need it as a promotional tool, as any long term services I may offer (I'm still developing a long range plan) will very likely be done through domain.com inside Wordpress.

      The domain itself and its intended content that will eventually get indexed is not related to freelancing in any way, and the temporary blog will simply be re-directed to an internal set of pages in the WP install on the main domain.

      P.S. Saw your post to my Rant in the Off topic forum. Thanks
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