preventing Google from caching pages

[Megg81]

When a site is being worked on and you have a page up just to say under construction - is there a way to prevent Google from caching this page? I know Google says that when pages are changed they eventually get removed from the cache when it next crawls the site, but often this is weeks and I really dont want this page to remain available after the site is published. Any tips? robots.txt? or will this potentially harm the site ranking once published?

[steve.ledger]

You can prevent access using a robots.txt placed in the root folder.

You can create a robots.txt using one of the many free generators on the web
eg► http://tools.seobook.com/robots-txt/generator/

[Rik]

I hope I am not hijacking the thread.

I have a 'cache' toggle switch (add-on) for Firefox Mac version, but I cannot seem to find this 'cache toggle' add-on for Firefox Windows version?

[steve.ledger]

That would not be affective for preventing bots indexing (and caching) your website files on your host, Rik.
The cache toggle is simply a local (your computer) cache manager for FF.

[Rik]

Thanks Steve.
I get it.

[pauland]

Megg81, do you have to publish the site to your server to test it?

Most sites created with vanilla Xara software should be testable on your hard drive.