: Preventing links with query parameters from being indexed by Google I manage a mobile version of a desktop site. The mobile site has an mdot subdomain and is served from a different server.

@Shanna517

Stephen Ostermiller’s answer explains how to configure it in Google Webmaster Tools (which answers your question). If you care about other search engines, too, or in addition,

you could use the Canonical link type.

You could specify the canonical link in a HTTP header, or you could specify it in the HTML:

On www.example.com/products/1127?MobileOptOut=1 (*), add the following link element:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/products/1127" />


Now supporting search engines (or other consumers) know that the document containing this element has the canonical URL www.example.com/products/1127, and they may use this URL (instead of the current one, i.e. the one including the parameter) in their SERPs (or whatever the consumer does).

(*) You may also add the link element when the current page’s URL is already the canonical one.

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@Heady270

Google Webmaster Tools does have the ability to tell Googlebot to ignore parameters. You can tell Googlebot to ignore the parameter "MobileOptOut" anywhere it appears on your site.

To do so:


Navigate in Webmaster Tools to Crawl -> URL Parameters.
Click the Configure URL parameters » link.
Click the Add Parameter button.
Put in the name: "MobileOptOut".
Select No: Doesn't affect page content (ex: tracks usage) from the drop down.
Click the Save button.

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