Removing a site from Google index with no index met tags

[Chris_Wright]

Hi there!

I wanted to remove a duplicated site from the google index. I've read that you can do this by removing the URL from Google Search console and, although I can't find it in Google Search console, Google keeps on showing the site on SERPs. So I wanted to add a "no index" meta tag to the code of the site however I've only found out how to do this for individual pages, can you do the same for a entire site? How can I do it?

Thank you for your help in advance!

L

[JordanLowry]

Depending on what CMS you're using you should be able to add a meta no-index tag sitewide fairly easily. I know with WordPress there's an option in the backend under "Setting", "Reading" Discourage search engines from indexing this site that should allow you to apply a meta no index tag site wide.

If you're not on WordPress you should be able to edit your code and apply a no index sitewide. You might need a tool like FileZilla so you can set up some sort of FTP access and edit your Header file directly.

Cheers

[ThomeedisonSam]

Depending on your interest and are you really willing to remove? Setting issues are there. I am also looking for AmazeInvent

[Rajesh.Prajapati]

You need to use robots.txt for the same. Just write a rule and remove your site from Google.

Rule is -

# rules

User-agent: *

Disallow: /

After this, Remove this meta tag -
name="robots" content="INDEX, FOLLOW"/> OR you can update this meta tag with this -
name="robots" content="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW"/>

[effectdigital]

This is the best response. Others have cited using robots.txt, that's a bad idea IMO. Robots.txt will stop Google from crawling pages, Meta no-index directs Google not to index a page. If Google can't crawl a page (due to robots.txt) then they won't be able to 'find' the no-index directive. As Jordan says, no-index should come first. When all pages are de-indexed, then OP can begin to think about robots.txt as suggested by Rajesh. OP could also combine Meta no-index with status code 410 (gone) to make it a stronger signal - though this is inadvisable with OP's situation (where the site will remain live for users, but be gone from Google). In the end, Jordan's reply is the best one which has been left here

A final note might be that, instead of editing the HTML of all OPs pages, OP could fire no-index though x-robots via the HTTP header (which is often more scaleable)