August 14, 2009
Adding Noindex, Nofollow to Home Page Nightmare
Imagine your home page ranks very high on the first page of Google for many high volume, highly competitive terms. Your search engine optimization efforts are working and life is good!
In addition, you’re testing new content with the Google Web Optimizer to see if a new version of your home page will convert better than your current page.
You decided that you didn’t want Google to index your test page (you called it index-b.html) so you added the following tag in your <HEAD> section:
<META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW”>
This essentially tells the Google robot to keep index-b.html out of the index and keep your page out of the search results. No foul here.
Ok, you’re happy with the quantitative data that the Google Web Optimizer & Google Analytics has given you. Time on page is up, bounce rates are down, and most importantly, conversion rates are up on your test page (index-b.html). You’re feeling good about being proactive with testing new content and your new improved performance (pat pat) and you put the test page in as the home page.
There would have been no issue as long as your remembered to remove the ROBOTS tag before replacing your old home page.
But you didn’t… and NOW YOU ARE SCREWED! AAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Your home page has disappeared from Google’s search results! Not only does it not appear for the high volume terms – it doesn’t even display for your domain name!
This is bad. Really bad. Luckily, you identified the problem the day after Google “deindexed” your home page.
Your mind is spinning with questions, fear, & uncertainty…
- How did we let this happen?
- What can/should we do now?!?
- How long until our page is “reindexed”?
- How long until we get our top positions back?
Ok, I’ve had a direct experience with a similar scenario. My head was filled with questions, fear, and uncertainty. At least the whole site wasn’t “deindexed” – that’s a story for another time (and no I was not responsible)!
The Nofollow, Noindex Fix
I’ve outlined the exact steps I took to get our home page back in the SERPs and back on top in less than a week – YMMV.
Step 1: DO NOT PANIC! Seriously, take a deep breath.
Step 2: Remove the tag from your header immediately
Step 3: Assuming you have a Google Webmasters account (if you don’t have one, get one now), request a site reconsideration request. Forget the ego and tell them exactly what happened and what you did to fix the problem
Step 4: Pray someone from Google responds and have mercy.
Luckily, we were restored quickly – #1 position for our #1 term!
I hope this never happens to you, but if it does, I hope our experience will help you recover the rankings you deserve.