Any way to unindex older non existent pages?

[briandoakes]

so i got my new site up last week, and the majority of the new pages have already been indexed by Google.

However, alot of my old site pages are still indexed by Google. These pages have been since removed from my site, so if a person clicked on them from Google, it will bring you to the new "Error Page" which is part of my new site.

# 1. is it bad that these old non existent pages are still indexed by Google?

# 2. will it hurt me that they are still indexed?

If so.... how can I have those non existant files un indexed from Google?

thanks in advance,
Brian

[martinuboo]

Does your new "error page" return a 404 - Page Not Found - status code? If so, the SEs will eventually drop those pages. If your error page returns a 200 status code (via a 302 errordocument redirect), they will probably stay in the index, but the content of the error page will be indexed and that will lead to duplicate content issues (you will have multiple page names with the same "error page" content).

Search engines (especially Google) are pretty slow at removing 404'd pages, so be patient.

If you want to remove the non-existent pages manually in Google, you can use the URL Removal Console (services.google.com:8882/urlconsole/controller - it's not resolving for me right now), but be very careful, as it's easy to remove your entire site. The removal lasts 6 months.

[briandoakes]

great thanks...

yes the new error page returns a 404 code... so I will just let Google phase it out itself.

[AussieWebmaster]

Always redirect your 404 erros to a current page... 1. why waste the traffic... 2. if you 301 the pages then the placement impact goes with it.

[maildeepak]

if the old pages are totally irrelevant to your current website, then you can also give the http code 410 (GONE) status. Once the search engines encounter this code, they will stop requesting the pages.

I have implemented this in two of my client sites. Gotta see if this is gonna affect the site in any way possible...

[AussieWebmaster]

Originally Posted by maildeepak

if the old pages are totally irrelevant to your current website, then you can also give the http code 410 (GONE) status. Once the search engines encounter this code, they will stop requesting the pages.

I have implemented this in two of my client sites. Gotta see if this is gonna affect the site in any way possible...

The idea of giving away any potential PR or even links to your site is one I have a hard time doing.
If they are not what the new site is about why not land them to a page that explains what changes have happened at the site - that way the people who have the inbound links can choose and the visitors can learn what has changed at the site without having to put the information on the homepage.

[martinuboo]

Originally Posted by AussieWebmaster

The idea of giving away any potential PR or even links to your site is one I have a hard time doing.
If they are not what the new site is about why not land them to a page that explains what changes have happened at the site - that way the people who have the inbound links can choose and the visitors can learn what has changed at the site without having to put the information on the homepage.

I have usually been trying to eliminate "problem" pages from the index when I 404 them, but this is an interesting approach and I will give this a try.

Thanks AussieWebmaster.

[AussieWebmaster]

Always keep the traffic sources.... at least I try whereever I can.