Hiding development site from Google until it's ready?

100% reliable method of concealing a test site from G's view

[alexnero]

Hello, all.

I'd like to start developing a new version of a current site, on a different server under a different domain name.

This is a complete redesign, so it cannot be performed piece-by-piece on the original site while it's running.

Problem is, there will be a LOT of duplicate content, including very specific brand/widget model names, so I don't want Google to see *anything* about the site - worried about penalties, etc.

Aside from blocking robots from the root in "robots.txt", is there anything else that can be done to keep search engines from even noticing the development site exists? I.e. don't even grab the URL?

Thanks in advance.

[Rehan]

How about if you password protect the site (using .htaccess on Linux, for example)?

[dbdev]

or forms authentication (in web.config) in an MS IIS server environment...

[alexnero]

Thanks for the password idea - Google doesn't / can't index password-protected pages, or any links from them, correct?

Would password-protecting the root also prevent Google from indexing the URL itself?

The current (live) site is "www.brandwidgets.com", and the dev. site is "www.widgetsbrand.com" - I don't want it to appear in SERP's under any searches until the development is done.

[dbdev]

is the webserver apache or iis ?

[alexnero]

Apache.

[WiseWebDude]

If you password protect it, Google cannot get to it. I would put a hard password in though as they might try and crack it...

;)

Just kidding.

[dbdev]

I'm not up to speed on Apache sorry...