Dynamically Inserting Noindex With Javascript

[Tom3_15]

Hello,

I have a broken plugin creating hundreds of WP-Content directory pages being indexed by Google. I can not access the source code of these pages to add a noindex to them. The page URL's all have the plugin name within them.  In order to resolve the issue, I wrote a solution with javascript to dynamically add in a noindex tag to any URL containing the plugin name. Would this noindex be respected by Google and is there a way to immediately check that it is respected?

Currently, I can not delete the plugin due to issues with it's php.

If you would like to view the code: https://codepen.io/trodrick/pen/Gwwaej?editors=0010

Thanks!

[JohnSammon]

Hey there! Do you have a link to a page where it's implemented live? As long as you have the no-index, no follow in there, you should be okay. Other things you can do:

1. Use robots.txt to hide the directory of pages that the plugin is outputting

2. Sign into the Google Search Console and no-index the same directory

I would do 1 and 2 to help speed up things once the no-index, no-follow tag is in place.

[Tom3_15]

It looks like it is active. Thanks, John! Can you no-index an entire directory in GSC? I thought it was only per URL.

[JohnSammon]

You can! Via https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1663419?hl=en

• If you choose to hide a directory, then any file or directory starting with the prefix you supply will be blocked. So if you enter /folder, then /folder/somefile, foldername/somefile, and /folder.html will all be blocked.
• To hide an entire site, leave the path empty.

[Tom3_15]

It seemed to work. Hopefully the noindex is respected, thank you!

[JohnSammon]

Perfect! Happy to help!