WEBSITE PLANNING

Choose Crawling and Indexing Controls Deliberately

Use a three-page decision exercise to separate crawler access, search visibility and private information.

Define the desired outcome first

A public service page, a public confirmation screen and a private customer invoice have different requirements. Write the intended audience beside each URL before choosing a technical control. The service page should be discoverable. The confirmation screen may remain accessible without appearing in search. The invoice needs actual access restrictions. Treating all three as a single hide-from-Google problem can produce the wrong implementation.

Understand the two search controls

Robots.txt manages crawler access. A noindex directive tells supported search engines not to include a page, but the crawler must be able to retrieve the directive. Neither is a substitute for authentication protecting private records. In particular, preventing crawling can stop Google from seeing a noindex instruction.

Run a paper review before changing rules

For the hypothetical service page, mark public and wanted in search. For the confirmation screen, mark public and not wanted in search, then ask how its instruction is delivered. For the invoice, mark authenticated and limited to the correct customer. Next, list the actual response status, robots instruction and access behavior. Any mismatch between intention and implementation becomes a specific developer task.

Validate the smallest relevant change

Use a non-sensitive test record for access checks and verify both permitted and denied requests. Check the public page’s delivered instructions after deployment. Keep a rollback copy of the previous rules. Search reports can reflect an older crawl, so distinguish live behavior from indexed evidence when reviewing the result.

Apply this to your website

Bring the relevant URL and a description of the decision to request a scoped website review. Do not send passwords or private customer records. The primary reference is the linked technical guidance.