I'm looking for a bulk way to take off from the Google search results over 600 old and inexisting pages?
-
When I search on Google site:alexanders.co.nz still showing over 900 results.
There are over 600 inexisting pages and the 404/410 errrors aren't not working.
The only way that I can think to do that is doing manually on search console using the "Removing URLs" tool but is going to take ages.
Any idea how I can take down all those zombie pages from the search results?
-
Just here to add some to Will almost complete answer:
The 'site:' often shows results that won't be displayed in Google search results and don't represent the entirely nor precisely the pages that are indexed.I'd suggest to you:
1- If those pages are already serving 404 or 410, then wait for a little. Google won't show them in search results and eventually won't be seen in a site: search. You can check whether those URLs are being shown in searches through search console.
2- There is a script made by a webmaster that helps you using the GSC URL removal tool for a big list of URLs. Please, use it carefully and try it first within a riskless GSC propertyHope it helps.
Best luck.
Gaston -
What is the business issue this is causing? Are you seeing these 404 / 410 pages appearing in actual searches?
If it's just that they remain technically indexed, I'd be tempted not to be too worried about it - they will drop out eventually.
Unfortunately, most of the ways to get pages (re-)indexed are only appropriate for real pages that you want to have remain in the index (e.g.: include in a new sitemap file and submit that) or are better for individual pages which has the same downside as removing them via search console one by one.
You can remove whole folders at a time via search console, if that would speed things up - if the removed pages are grouped neatly into folders?
Otherwise, I would probably consider prioritising the list (using data about which are getting visits or visibility in search) and removing as many as you can be bothered to work through.
Hope that helps.
-
Hi, Thanks for that, the problem is that those pages are really old they are generating 0 traffic so we set up a 404 error page a long time ago but Google is not going to remove those pages because without traffic there is not crawl and without a few crawls Google is not going to know that those pages don't exist anymore. They are literally zombie pages! Any idea?
-
What about creating a load of 301 redirects, from the none existent URLs to the still active ones , &/ or, updating your 404 pages to better inform users what happened to the "missing" pages. regardless Google will just stop indexing them after a short while.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Will google be able to crawl all of the pages given that the pages displayed or the info on a page varies according to the city of a user?
So the website I am working for asks for a location before displaying the product pages. There are two cities with multiple warehouses. Based on the users' location, the product pages available in the warehouse serving only in that area are shown. If the user skips location, default warehouse-related product pages are shown. The APIs are all location-based.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Airlift0 -
How to Get Rid of Dates Shown In Google Search Results
When I enter "Site: URL" to check what a search how Google displays search result, a date appears at the very front. This takes away several characters, really valuable real estate. How can I stop Google from displaying these dates? There are certain Wordpress plugins like "WP Date Remover" however the seem to only apply to blog posts. Dates are appearing on results on all my Wordpress pages. Is there an internal setting in Wordpress that will allow me to remove dates for these non blogpost pages?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kingalan11 -
What can cause for a service page to rank in Google's Answer Box?
Hello Everyone, Have recently seen a Google result for "vps hosting" showing service page details in Answer Box. I would really like to know, what can cause a service page to appear in the Answer Box? Have attached a screenshot of result page. CaRiWtQUcAALn9n.png CaRiWtQUcAALn9n.png
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | eukmark0 -
"Null" appearing as top keyword in "Content Keywords" under Google index in Google Search Console
Hi, "Null" is appearing as top keyword in Google search console > Google Index > Content Keywords for our site http://goo.gl/cKaQ4K . We do not use "null" as keyword on site. We are not able to find why Google is treating "null" as a keyword for our site. Is anyone facing such issue. Thanks & Regards
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vivekrathore0 -
When does Google index a fetched page?
I have seen where it will index on of my pages within 5 minutes of fetching, but have also read that it can take a day. I'm on day #2 and it appears that it has still not re-indexed 15 pages that I fetched. I changed the meta-description in all of them, and added content to nearly all of them, but none of those changes are showing when I do a site:www.site/page I'm trying to test changes in this manner, so it is important for me to know WHEN a fetched page has been indexed, or at least IF it has. How can I tell what is going on?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | friendoffood0 -
Google de-indexed a page on my site
I have a site which is around 9 months old. For most search terms we rank fine (including top 3 rankings for competitive terms). Recently one of our pages has been fluctuating wildly in the rankings and has now disappeared altogether from the rankings for over 1 week. As a test I added a similar page to one of my other sites and it ranks fine. I've checked webmaster tools and there is nothing of note there. I'm not really sure what to do at this stage. Any advice would me much appreciated!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | deelo5550 -
Does putting a Google custom search box on make Google think my users are bouncing?
I added a Google custom search box to my pages, that's doing an advanced Google search. A lot of people are using it. So users are coming to my site from a Google search, and then often performing another Google search on my site. Should I be worried that Google may interpret the resultant user behavior as a bounce or pogo-stick? Or will the fact that the second search occurred on my site, using custom search, and with advanced parameters signal to Google that this is not a dissatisfied user returning to Google? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GilReich0 -
Keyword search in Google Adwords
Hello all, I would like to use the Google Adwords Keywords search tool, in order to start working in the structure of my website and targeting the right keywords. I am targeting all the world, all languages, global monthly searaches but: I have the doubt which filte I should use: broad?, exact? or phrase?I am using "braod" but I do not know if I should use exact instead for keyword selection. Would you recommend me any other tool instead of Google Adwords Keywords Search for keyword analysis? Thank you very much Antonio
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | aalcocer20030