Cached pages

[MinaHarker]

I have taken my tutoring website down as I don't want it up or anyone to see it when I am teaching.

There is nothing there to be ashamed of, but it does give a business phone number and has pics of me and says the town I live in.

The trouble is, it is still visible, Google says it is "cached".

I don't know what that means, but I want to get it down, now!

Please help!

[Lissa]

This page should help -

http://www.google.com/support/webmas...&answer=164734

Though Google's caching doesn't usually take a full copy of the site - just odd pages with gaps where non-existent photos should be and links that take you to the original (removed) pages.

Besides, you've got an iconic namesake who'll muddy the Google results a little.

[MinaHarker]

I've looked at that, but it relies on me being able to access the html code of my website, which I cannot because I don't know how.

[Lissa]

Ok, the easiest thing to do is

If you own the site, you can verify your ownership in Webmaster Tools and use the verified URL removal tool to remove an entire directory from Google's search results.

Just sign up for Google Web Tools (which you can do using a Googlemail, Google Docs or Google Calendar ID if you have one), upload a small file to your website to prove to Google that you control it and then tell it which URLs to remove from search results. It will take a few days to remove it from every search index but it does work.

The complicated stuff is mainly for sites which are active but which, for whatever reason, the webmasters want to keep private.

[MinaHarker]

I did upload the file but the verification kept failing.

To be honest, I didn't know what they meant by "upload" - I stuck the object they gave me on thew homepage (I use a template) but it didn't work because the verification kept wanting to look for a page with that name but it doesn't exist.

[MinaHarker]

Does anyone use Hostpapa?

I can't find ANYTHING on the support or cpanel that tells me how to edit the html. There may well be something, but it's just words I don't understand rather than a button that says "edit html" which is what I need?

Or something about changing the DNS configurations? I really don't know what these things are.

[Lissa]

It needs to be a stand-alone file so it can look at www.yourdomain.com/google1234567890.html rather than part of a page. If your template won't let you upload new pages then it won't work. Nor will any of the other things Google suggests (tags, robot text files etc). All you can do is wait.

Unless you want to create some fake pages with made up information. People only ever click on the cache link if the main search result link either comes up with an error page or a blank page.

[Lissa]

If your hosting package supports FTP then http://hostpapasupport.com/index.php...63&nav=0,11,21 will show you how to upload the Google verification file.

[MinaHarker]

Sorry but I don't understand what the words on that link mean, I just don't get it.

Even the helpdesk can't help me at the moment. I hate Google for doing this to me.

[MinaHarker]

AHA!

Finally I did it! Now I've just got to work out how to work the Google webmaster thing. Thanks Lissa.

BTW I hate computers at times! I have never been taught any of this, it may as well be in Russian

[WhiteCrowNZ]

BTW I hate computers at times! I have never been taught any of this, it may as well be in Russian

Despite having worked in computers now for 14 years, there are some aspects to it I find baffling. I found it kind of hard to put together my own website together a few years ago.

[MinaHarker]

Frankly I don't think I'll be doing it again. The helpdesk have made me feel really stupid for not knowing all this stuff. I've never been taught it and was just muddling along, they don't seem to get that I don't know all these words. I've tried to learn, but without actually being taught it I am not doing very well. I'm not one of those people who "picks things up" - I need to read instructions or have someone tell me.