How do you get OUT of SE's?

My test pages are indexed...

[zoobie]

In the future, I shall use no index/no follow for my test pages...but my test and home pages have also been indexed through help forums like this one. This looks really bad showing I had problems with the site. They are uneditable.
I've contacted the forums...but they have been unresponsive. How do I get these pages OUT of the SE's and how long will it take before they're dropped from SERP's? Thanks

[bakedjake]

robots.txt/de-inclusion requests. Password protect your test servers! It'll take about a month to get dropped, but it usually works.

Password protect your test servers!

If you really want them down in a hurry, you could probably send a legal-speak letter about the DMCA, but that might be attempting to crack a nut with a sledgehammer.

Oh, did I mention you should password protect your test servers? :)

[Mark_A]

I agree with bakedjake

"Password protect your test servers!"

Oh and delete those test pages now unless you can get them protected immediately, then at least the only place people can see them is in an se cache :-)

The other thing is dont allow any links to any test pages in any place on the net in the future.

[edit_g]

Keep test pages on a local server, restrict access by IP, password protect them and never link to them from the main structure of your site or any other "live sites".

Just keep them private, that's what they're for - if you need to link to something from a forum make sure that you can take that page down easily.

[willybfriendly]

The other thing is dont allow any links to any test pages in any place on the net in the future.

There is anecdotal evidence that viewing a page in a Google Tool Bar equipped browser can result in the page being spidered even if there are no links. So, be careful what you view your test pages in too.

WBF

[zoobie]

I've already taken the test pages down...but some, like the index itself, I can't. Now what?

[edited by: zoobie at 7:41 pm (utc) on Sep. 9, 2003]

[bakedjake]

Best bet is to stick in a robots.txt and password protection immediately.

SEs don't always drop 404s immediately, IIRC. But employing all three measures will get it down relatively quickly.

[zoobie]

But one's my index...which I obviously can't take down.
Am I stuck?

[bakedjake]

Why can't you restrict access to it? If you password protect it, and only give your staff and clients the password, the SEs can't get to it.

[zoobie]

Huh? Password protect my index?
It's a public site...
I'm missing something here...

[bakedjake]

Are your test pages on your live server?

[zoobie]

Not any more...I took all the test pages down. Problem is, I asked a few forums to take a look at my index and put a link to it in the posts...and I can't edit the posts...
Thanks

[bakedjake]

Ah. Only thing you can do there is ask a mod to remove the link.

[zoobie]

...and they're ignoring me...

[zoobie]

Ok...One forum could only take out the links in the thread...
Will the search engine still index that page?

[bakedjake]

Yes, but the links pointing to your site are gone.

[zoobie]

So, it won't show up when searching anymore?
Thanks