Removing content

Occasionally a request will come in for content to be removed from the website because it is a bit awkward and showing up in high ranking positions on search engines like Google when you type in someone’s name. This does not, however, mean that the content has to be deleted from the site (unless requested so for legal reasons!).

Website

Set the status of the article to draft, or remove the author from the article and check there are no referneces to it

PDFs

Sometimes we get asked to edit old PDFs in the print edition archive. The best tool is Nuance PDF Coverter, which is installed on all campus PCs and there’s a university-provided license code for home use. It’s a bit fiddly to use, but it does the job really well – it completely removes selected text and graphics (it doesn’t just draw a box on top), while perfectly preserving everything else

Encouraging Google to re-index pages

You can use the Fetch as Google thing in Google Webmaster Tools (you should be given access) to prod Google about changes to old articles. Paste in the relevant part of the url (minus the http://www.nouse.co.uk/), click Fetch, and then wait and click Submit to index.

Reports

People can report issues via a report button on each comment on the site. These reports are delivered to the web team who can then act on them. These requests are primarily handled by the Online Editor, but the tech team can also handle them.