How to remove google search results for 303 redirect?

Question

I run a dynamic site that may or may not redirect a certain route based on user preferences.

Let's say it's http://clientname.example.com/maybe. Our backend has a response for /maybe, but if the client decides they would rather use their site for the information on that page, we instead use a 303 Redirect to their page on a separate domain.

All of our content pages use the <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> tag, so google will not index any of our pages. HOWEVER, when I search google for "site:our_domain_name.com", I get a bunch of results that all trace back to those dynamic routes that return a 303. When I click on the search results in google, the 303 is followed as expected and I arrive at the client's site. What I want, is for my piece of the puzzle to not show in results at all.

I was troubleshooting it this morning, and I realized that our noindex meta tag was obviously not being seen by the robot as it was following the redirect, so I added a rule on the server that adds the 'X-Robot-Tag: noindex' header to redirect responses.

Is that enough? If I wait long enough, will those search results be removed?

Are you also blocking them in robots.txt? or are you just using robots meta tags and the x-robots-tag header? — plasticinsect, Aug 21 '15 at 19:59
Good. Then you should be fine, at least with major search engines. It may take a few weeks though. — plasticinsect, Aug 21 '15 at 20:06

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 28 '15 at 15:32

Is that enough? If I wait long enough, will those search results be removed?

No because if an external page links to your site, Google will follow the link to your site, then your 303 (if your return such a code) and won't see the noindex.

Don't return a 303 for Google bots and you should be fine. It may take a bit of time, because Google needs to reprocess the page and see the noindex to remove it.

How to remove google search results for 303 redirect?

1 Answers1