About 2½ - 3 months ago I gave my personal site a complete overhaul, going from static to dynamic pages and changing most of the content at the same time. I contacted Google asking to be re-indexed, since none of the old links worked anymore.
That was then - I still find links to the old, non-existent pages. Is there a good strategy to have them permanently removed from the index or do I just have to wait it out some more?
Thanks,
/lmss
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Purging Outdated Pages From Google
Started by
lmsoren
, Aug 08 2003 04:01 AM
15 replies to this topic
#1
lmsoren
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Posted 08 August 2003 - 04:01 AM
#2
markymark
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Posted 08 August 2003 - 04:07 AM
They'll get removed in time. In the meanwhile, you should be redirecting the non-existent links to their equivalent pages on the new site.
#3
lmsoren
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Posted 08 August 2003 - 01:30 PM
Yeah, I guess that's one option. I've decided not to redirect though. My 404 page has a thorough explanation plus a search feature. I just think that after almost three months those dead links should have been weeded out. Makes you wonder how much link rot there actually is, out there...
/lmss
/lmss
#4
Matt B
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The modem is the message.
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Posted 08 August 2003 - 03:32 PM
You'll probably get referrals to the old pages from AltaVista for another year or two . . .I just think that after almost three months those dead links should have been weeded out. Makes you wonder how much link rot there actually is, out there...
#5
Vermont
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Posted 08 August 2003 - 03:58 PM
You can redirect just those old pages, you do not have to do a 404 redirect
#6
Scottie
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Posted 08 August 2003 - 04:34 PM
A 404 is a page not found error, not a redirect. You can set up a custom page to catch all missing or broken pages, typically by naming is 404.shtml and placing it in the root folder of the site.
Many hosting plans include a CPanel that will allow you to set up your own permanent redirects (a 301 redirect). It's worth checking- it's very easy to use.
Just more details in case anyone was confused.
Many hosting plans include a CPanel that will allow you to set up your own permanent redirects (a 301 redirect). It's worth checking- it's very easy to use.
Just more details in case anyone was confused.
#8
garyhall
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HR 2
Posted 26 August 2003 - 05:21 PM
Hi,
We like to add the following code to the old pages. It not only
redirects but ask to not be reindexed.
Gary
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
You will want to add the following to the <head> section of the pages:
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="x; url=y">
where x is the number of seconds delay before redirection occurs and y
is the new URL. You may also want to add some code to the page body to
include a link to the new page, in case the visitor's browser does not
support redirection. A complete code example could look like
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR...l4/strict.dtd">
<html lang="en-us">
<head>
<title>TITLE</title>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5; url=NEW_URL">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>
<body>
<p>This page has moved. If you are not
automatically redirected within five seconds, please
follow this link to <a href="NEW_URL">NEW_URL</a>.</p>
</body>
</html>
where the obvious are subsituted for TITLE and NEW_URL.
We like to add the following code to the old pages. It not only
redirects but ask to not be reindexed.
Gary
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
You will want to add the following to the <head> section of the pages:
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="x; url=y">
where x is the number of seconds delay before redirection occurs and y
is the new URL. You may also want to add some code to the page body to
include a link to the new page, in case the visitor's browser does not
support redirection. A complete code example could look like
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR...l4/strict.dtd">
<html lang="en-us">
<head>
<title>TITLE</title>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5; url=NEW_URL">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>
<body>
<p>This page has moved. If you are not
automatically redirected within five seconds, please
follow this link to <a href="NEW_URL">NEW_URL</a>.</p>
</body>
</html>
where the obvious are subsituted for TITLE and NEW_URL.
#9
mopacfan
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Posted 27 August 2003 - 09:41 AM
I have a similar problem but different 
I used to own the domain www.code3responder.com. I let the domain registration expire and it was snapped up by one of those companies that buys expired domains that had significant traffic. So I tried to get Google to remove the site from it's listings. But because the domain name is active (by this other firm) Google won't remove my old content (which you can see in the cache).
I have gone out to most of the sites that had links to C3R to have them change thier links to point to Project Responder so at least they won't end up somewhere they did not intend to be.
So how long do you think it will be before Google finally removes the pages which no longer exist?
I used to own the domain www.code3responder.com. I let the domain registration expire and it was snapped up by one of those companies that buys expired domains that had significant traffic. So I tried to get Google to remove the site from it's listings. But because the domain name is active (by this other firm) Google won't remove my old content (which you can see in the cache).
I have gone out to most of the sites that had links to C3R to have them change thier links to point to Project Responder so at least they won't end up somewhere they did not intend to be.
So how long do you think it will be before Google finally removes the pages which no longer exist?
#10
garyhall
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Posted 27 August 2003 - 11:16 AM
Not a clue. Sounds like you need to contact Google.
Regards,
Gary
Regards,
Gary
#11
mopacfan
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Posted 27 August 2003 - 11:35 AM
Gary,Not a clue. Sounds like you need to contact Google.
Regards,
Gary
Other than the url removal form, how else do you convince them to remove the old content?
#12
Jill
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High Rankings Advisor
Posted 27 August 2003 - 11:58 AM
When Google does its crawl and no longer finds those pages, they will be removed.
However, any pages of the new site that have the same file names as your old file names will remain indexed, but with the new content. Same with the home page. Google will not delete the domain entirely, nor should they.
Jill
However, any pages of the new site that have the same file names as your old file names will remain indexed, but with the new content. Same with the home page. Google will not delete the domain entirely, nor should they.
Jill
#13
mopacfan
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Posted 28 August 2003 - 09:27 AM
I guess I didn't make myself fully understood. I just want to have my old content removed. I'll have to keep an eye on the cache and see if it get's deleted.Google will not delete the domain entirely, nor should they.
#14
Jill
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- Admin
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High Rankings Advisor
Posted 28 August 2003 - 09:43 AM
As long as the old content no longer exists and returns a 404-error, it will eventually be removed.
We just can't say for sure how long "eventually" is.
J
We just can't say for sure how long "eventually" is.
J
#15
dzinerbear
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Posted 28 August 2003 - 03:52 PM
Here's what I did.
For a whole bunch of reasons that I don't need to get into, I needed to change the file structure of my site. Where all of my HTML page sat in the root of my site, I changed them so that they were sorted into subdirectories on the root.
My site had already been indexed and had good rankings, some number ones. I didn't want to lose them, and some fine folks at webmasterworld.com suggest the way to handle it was through an htaccess file. So, I created the following:
redirectPermanent /keyword_keyword_keyword.htm http://www.mydomain....word/index.html
I created a line for each one of the pages on my site (about 12 at the time). I did that on July 30, and I just checked again this week, and all of the old pages are out of Google, and all of the new ones are in. I believe the shift started last week, maybe the week before, I wasn't being all that consumed with it.
I haven't gone through my rankings very closely, but I can say for certain that I didn't lose any of my number one spots. As for the 5,6,7,8, and 9's, I don't know. I'm too busy right now to check.
So, this might help push things through a little quicker.
Good Luck
Dzinerbear
For a whole bunch of reasons that I don't need to get into, I needed to change the file structure of my site. Where all of my HTML page sat in the root of my site, I changed them so that they were sorted into subdirectories on the root.
My site had already been indexed and had good rankings, some number ones. I didn't want to lose them, and some fine folks at webmasterworld.com suggest the way to handle it was through an htaccess file. So, I created the following:
redirectPermanent /keyword_keyword_keyword.htm http://www.mydomain....word/index.html
I created a line for each one of the pages on my site (about 12 at the time). I did that on July 30, and I just checked again this week, and all of the old pages are out of Google, and all of the new ones are in. I believe the shift started last week, maybe the week before, I wasn't being all that consumed with it.
I haven't gone through my rankings very closely, but I can say for certain that I didn't lose any of my number one spots. As for the 5,6,7,8, and 9's, I don't know. I'm too busy right now to check.
So, this might help push things through a little quicker.
Good Luck
Dzinerbear
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