Since the Panda update for Google algorithms, more and more people have been trying to manage their Google index by weeding out “low-quality” pages. Managing your index is always a good idea if your goal is good Automotive search engine optimization results, but there are a few common mistakes that you should look out for.
One of the biggest mistakes is to completely block the crawl paths for pages you don’t want indexed. I know it sounds like the logical thing to do if you don’t want a page indexed just make sure Google doesn’t crawl it, but that can actually be counter productive to your goal. The problem is that if you are managing an existing site and want to de-index pages that have already been indexed, the spiders will need to at least reach the page to be able to read the noindex tag. If the spiders never make it to the pages you want to remove, because you have blocked the paths by nofollowing the links, then those pages will stay in your index.
Instead still use the noindex tag freely but keep all of the links open so that the spiders will have an easier time de-indexing your pages. Keep in mind that this process usually takes quite a while even if you do it right so you shouldn’t expect results immediately. Also keep in mind that for building new sites rather than managing existing ones you should absolutely use nofollow links along with the noindex tags to ensure that Google never indexes the page to begin with.
Do you need help managing your website and SEO? Are you finding it hard to keep up with constant Google updates? Contact Wikimotive for a free evaluation of your web page and your SEO strategies.