Timeframe for Google to Deindex a page?

[jewboy]

Hello SEW community,

I'm wondering how long it takes on average, based on your experiences for google to remove a dead link in the SERPs after a site has gone off-line or page was removed. In other words, how long does Google take to deindex a page after it no longer exists? I know that there is no absolute answer to this question, but would particularly like to know what's the longest you've seen a dead link in the index. thanks all

[beu]

At least a few days but, across all data centers world-wide it could take months. If you have something to remove I would use the removal tool in Google Webmaster Tools. Sorry to be vague but hope this helps!

[jimbeetle]

From my very limited experience, Google will remove 404s from its index almost immediately -- after all, it doesn't want a bad user experience.

If however the 404s or other errors were caused by something like server downtime, the URLs will be restored to the index the next time they are available.

how long does Google take to deindex a page after it no longer exists?

As above, G should remove 404s from its index in a very short time. However, Google will request the URLs almost ad infinitum

Best bet always is to redirect these 404s to a very relevant page within the site.

[billse]

My experience has been 'quickly with popular sites, slowly with less-popular site'; possibly similar to the value of the crawl you get. I have seen dead links hang out for more than a month on a site that had very little authority.

I agree with Beu - if you're in a hurry use Webmaster Central or redirect (I've heard theories that a redirect will update faster than a 404, but I never tested it).