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  4. How to properly remove pages and a category from Google's index

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How to properly remove pages and a category from Google's index

On-Page Optimization
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  • VinceWicks
    VinceWicks last edited by Sep 19, 2012, 8:53 AM

    I want to remove this category http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/ and all the pages in that category (e.g. http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/7386.html ) from Google's index.

    I used the following string in the "Reomval URS" section in Google Webmaster Tools:

    http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/*

    is that correct or I better use http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/ ?

    Thanks in advance.

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • VinceWicks
      VinceWicks last edited by Sep 20, 2012, 9:43 AM Sep 20, 2012, 9:43 AM

      Thanks for your replies guys. Now I know how to proceed. 🙂

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • benjaminspak
        benjaminspak @William.Lau last edited by Sep 20, 2012, 9:42 AM Sep 19, 2012, 2:20 PM

        In addition I would put the "No Index" meta attribute in the pages.

        http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93710

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • William.Lau
          William.Lau last edited by Sep 20, 2012, 9:42 AM Sep 19, 2012, 11:33 AM

          It sounds like you want to de-index them.

          Go into your robots.txt and disallow Google from the category..

          It will look something like this:

          User-agent: googlebot or *

          Disallow: /web-design-news-all/

          benjaminspak 1 Reply Last reply Sep 19, 2012, 2:20 PM Reply Quote 1
          • Highland
            Highland last edited by Sep 20, 2012, 9:42 AM Sep 19, 2012, 9:32 AM

            Are you removing the pages or just trying to de-index them? If you're trying to remove them, make sure the old pages return a 404 so they can't be restored to the index. If you're trying to remove them, make sure they are excluded by robots.txt or meta tag.

            Here's the WMT Help page on the topic

            http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1663427

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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