Add a noindex tag and robots.txt so search engines skip your unfinished site, then remove them cleanly on launch day.
Stop Google from indexing my site until I launch next week
How it works
- Check if Google already found you: Vovy searches site:yourdomain.com and checks Search Console if you have it, so you know whether pages are already listed.
- Add a noindex tag: Vovy asks your editor to add a robots meta tag set to noindex in your page head. This tells search engines not to list the page.
- Leave robots.txt open: Blocking crawlers in robots.txt stops Google from seeing the noindex tag. Vovy explains this common mix-up and keeps crawling allowed.
- Deploy the change: Vovy asks, pushes the change, and confirms on the live site that the noindex tag is really in the page source.
- Set a launch-day reminder: A card lists exactly what to remove on launch day, so you don't forget and wonder why no one finds you on Google.
What you provide
- Your site's code
- Your launch date
What you get
- noindex live on your pages
- robots.txt set correctly
- A launch-day undo checklist
FAQ
Can people still visit my site?
Yes. noindex only keeps it off search results. Anyone with the link can still open it.
Is robots.txt enough on its own?
No. robots.txt blocks crawling, but Google can still list a blocked URL if other sites link to it. A noindex tag is the reliable way.
Will this hurt my SEO later?
Not if you remove it at launch. Google will pick the pages up on its next crawl, which you can speed up in Search Console.
Related tasks
All tasks