Google's "Unavailable After" Meta Tag Live

peter_d · 07-29-2007, 08:34 PM

How to get removed from the Google index.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/...with-even.html

Quote:

We have introduced a new META tag that allows you to tell us when a page should be removed from the main Google web search results: the aptly named unavailable_after tag. This one follows a similar syntax to other REP META tags. For example, to specify that an HTML page should be removed from the search results after 3pm Eastern Standard Time on 25th August 2007, simply add the following tag to the first section of the page:

<META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="unavailable_after: 25-Aug-2007 15:00:00 EST">

The date and time is specified in the RFC 850 format.

This information is treated as a removal request: it will take about a day after the removal date passes for the page to disappear from the search results. We currently only support unavailable_after for Google web search results.

**ToddW** · 07-30-2007, 01:01 AM

To bad the other search engines don't follow this rule.

For sites I don't want indexed after X days I just disallow all bots completely (or atleast attempt too)

Mihai · 07-30-2007, 04:43 AM

I was in great need of this feature when one of our customer's website moved to a different niche that... lets say... did not need any publicity

coolguy27 · 08-02-2007, 10:39 AM

Yeah, only applicable to Google.. Other SE will not follow this tag.... That's not good...

Natural Elements · 08-03-2007, 09:58 AM

I disagree with this tag, because it means you must leave the pages live. Pages live mean the page could be considered as duplicated, for instance the menu. If you are using a dwt template, you cannot remove the menu code for the page not used anymore, but leaving a page for this tag, no thanks.

The best way to go is robot.txt or webmaster tools.

peterko · 08-03-2007, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

I disagree with this tag, because it means you must leave the pages live. Pages live mean the page could be considered as duplicated, for instance the menu. If you are using a dwt template, you cannot remove the menu code for the page not used anymore, but leaving a page for this tag, no thanks.

The best way to go is robot.txt or webmaster tools.

I also use robots.txt to disallow some pages from spider visiting. But it seems to me there is a difference between those two options for disallowing. As far as I noticed, robots.txt file stops the robot from visiting listed URLs, but it's still continue listing within SERP for a little while. Another words, not wanted pages will remain in cache for a while. So, the tag "unavailable_after" looks like get rid of this cache at the day you specify. Correct me if I'm wrong.

So it's probably better to have both options. That's my opinion, but I could be wrong.

Have agreat day,
Peter

Natural Elements · 08-03-2007, 04:30 PM

Peter it cannot work for me, like I said above, when using the dwt it is not good at all if the page stay live. If the page stay live the menu stay live and could be considered as duplicate.

The menu code cannot be removed because of the dwt. So all the Macromedia Dreamveaver users cannot take advantage of these tags.

That's my opinion