How to avoid manual actions when you are working on a site for months?

[jambam]

What do you do if you are working on a site and dont want a google manual reviewer to pure spam it?

I once was recreating a site ie brand new design/ starting everything from scratch but by the tim I had finished wich was several months I found out that the site had received a pure spam notice within that time at some part.... Just because it didnt have a much content on it while I was creating everything.

Im now working on another site? What do I need to do?

This time I have made sure to block the search engines via robots.txt and currently the site is still indexed but says gogolebot cannot crawl it.

Surely this should be enough right? Its not as though you are trying to "game the system" if google bot is banned and you are not even trying to rank for anything or can really.

[netmeg]

Blocking it in robots.txt will prevent crawling, it won't prevent indexing. All my dev sites are either password protected, IP restricted or at the very least has a NOINDEX robots meta tag on every page until it's ready for launch.

It's not a question of whether or not you're trying to game the system. Google doesn't want the site while it's low quality. So don't let them index it until it's good quality.

[tangor]

As netmeg says, or better still, a dev machine that is NOT connected to the net in any fashion.

[Wilburforce]

What do I need to do?

See previous comments.

What you should NOT do is allow unfinished sites or pages to get indexed.

That means you shouldn't either submit them or link to them from anywhere else untile they are ready. Write and proof the content BEFORE you upload links to it it from existing pages. Don't build and upload the link structure and almost empty pages first and write the content afterwards.

If you can't develop your site offline, then do as netmeg says and at the very least NOINDEX pages until they are finished.

[Walt Hartwell]

I don't believe Google will consider a site "pure spam" just because it's light on content.

When you ask about "game the system" it provides an indicator of what the true issue might be.

[jambam]

thanks for your replies.

@Walt Hartwell what do you mean? how can I be gaming the system if google cannot crawl my site?

Okay I will add a noindex tag to the site... what about just a 404 error page?

Currently the site has lots of links as it used to be a blog I used to write however im coding my own content management system and starting a fresh now.

[Wilburforce]

what about just a 404 error page?

You should ensure that your server gives a 404 response to requests for non-existent pages, which doesn't always happen with custom-error pages on CMS. I would advise you to check this before you go ahead with it: Soft 404 errors are not usually that serious, but might make a difference if there are other issues.

[netmeg]

No 404s unless it's for pages that don't exist. Don't let Google even SEE your site until it's done. You're much better off password protecting or IP restricting it. If you implement the NOINDEX, which is the least of my recommendations, Google will still see it.You're going to have a hard job making it rank as it is - why handicap yourself even more?

[RedBar]

or better still, a dev machine that is NOT connected to the net in any fashion.

Precisely, I do not let any site go out into the wild until I am completely satisfied that it works as intended and has all the relevant information up-to-date.

If you're working with html5 this is very, very easy to do.

The other option is to initially launch a small, but 100% complete, site and then simply add new sections/information on a weekly basis however when doing this you must ensure you know your intended navigational and folder structure from the very beginning, do not start off with one type of navigation and change it every time you add new stuff. If you only have two or three internal links to start off with then leave it at that, it makes it so much easier later on to add new links than to make sitewide changes.

Preparation is the key, this is the way we have been doing it since the early 90s and it still works.

[jambam]

Can some one give me an example of a password protected page? How is this different to a 200 status code page?

[Leosghost]

cpanel..is an example of a password protected page..you have to give a login name and a password to access the page..( yes the cpanel interface is a page*)..if you have to give a user name and password ( or sometimes just a password ) to gain entry to a page..then that is what you are dealing with..

* then depending on what you click on..cpanel lets you access other pages, where you can click to run scripts, that talk to your install..

[fathom]

It is important to understand you'll never get a PURE SPAM MANUAL REVIEW without a SPAM REPORT being submitted.

Most commom a competitor reporting the domain but it could also be a search user or a Google Rater.

[jambam]

@fathom? is that true how do you know this? Wow now this is going to alter a few things I thought I know about seo.

I always thought manual spam reviews were just random or something like that.

[fathom]

Whether the report is via the feedback link at the bottom of every SERP or the use of the more formal [google.com...] ... That's as random as it gets.

Occasionally the odd reference is reported @ Google Groups but the WEBSPAM TEAM needs to be poked to actually review any referrals there.