How can I prevent Google from indexing documents stored on Microsoft Azure blob storage?

Question

I have a PDF stored in Azure blob storage. When I search the name of the document on Google search engine, the full link of my PDF appears in the result. I don't want this happen.

Can I get Google stop indexing documents stored on Microsoft Azure storage? Can I use <meta name="robots" content="noindex">?

Answer 1

1. Create a container called $root

2. In that container upload your robots.txt file blocking the folders or files you want

3. Change the file access level to Public

4. Go to http://yourstorage.blob.core.windows.net/robots.txt to check if everything is ok

Optional: Register your storage domain in Google Search Console to check all the statistics of indexed pages (Use the same container above to add the domain validation html file)

Answer 2

You can "NOINDEX" PDF files but the process is a bit different; since PDF files don't have a section for you to insert the meta robots tag that you mentioned, you have to do it using the x-robots noindex command, which is an HTTP header command that you add to your .htaccess file.

This article describes this process in a very clear way - if you know how to work with .htaccess files it should be simple to implement this (but be careful if you don't).

Edit: as mentioned below, depending on the server you use you won't have access to an .htaccess file but the logic is still the same: you need to do it through HTTP headers.