Old URLs Appearing in SERPs

[RosemaryB]

Thirteen months ago we removed a large number of non-corporate URLs from our web server.  We created 301 redirects and in some cases, we simply removed the content as there was no place to redirect to.

Unfortunately, all these pages still appear in Google's SERPs (not Bings) for both the 301'd pages and the pages we removed without redirecting.  When you click on the pages in the SERPs that have been redirected - you do get redirected - so we have ruled out any problems with the 301s.

We have already resubmitted our XML sitemap and when we run a crawl using Screaming Frog we do not see any of these old pages being linked to at our domain.

We have a few different approaches we're considering to get Google to remove these pages from the SERPs and would welcome your input.

• Remove the 301 redirect entirely so that visits to those pages return a 404 (much easier) or a 410 (would require some setup/configuration via Wordpress).  This of course means that anyone visiting those URLs won't be forwarded along, but Google may not drop those redirects from the SERPs otherwise.
• Request that Google temporarily block those pages (done via GWMT), which lasts for 90 days.
• Update robots.txt to block access to the redirecting directories.

Thank you.

Rosemary

One year ago I removed a whole lot of junk that was on my web server but it is still appearing in the SERPs.

[RosemaryB]

You're right - I'm worrying about something that isn't yet a problem.

Thank you

[randfish]

In my experience, the best way to absolutely get rid of them is to use the 410 permanently gone status code, then resubmit them for indexation (possibly via an XML sitemap submission, and you can also use Google's crawl testing tool in Search Console to double-check). That said, even with 410, Google can take their time.

The other option is to recreate 200 pages there and use the meta robots noindex tag on the page to specifically exclude them. The temporary block in Google Search Console can work, too, but, it's temporary and I can't say whether it will actually extend the time that the redirected pages appear in the index via the site: command.

All that said, if the pages only show via a site: command, there's almost no chance anyone will see them

[RosemaryB]

Ok, Rand - one last questions.

I do think one year is a long time to have old results and if I was going to do a test to get Google to stop showing them in their SERPs what would you do?   --- Let's say a client asked you to have these URLs disappear

The 79 pages that appear in the /eichler/ directory are from a personal site so I don't care what happens with those pages in the SERPs.

My ideas are:

• Remove the 301 redirect entirely so that visits to those pages return a 404 (much easier) or a 410 (would require some setup/configuration via Wordpress).  This of course means that anyone visiting those URLs won't be forwarded along, but Google may not drop those redirects from the SERPs otherwise.

• Request that Google temporarily block those pages (done via GWMT), which lasts for 90 days.

• Update robots.txt to block access to the redirecting directories.

• Remove the 301 redirect entirely so that visits to those pages return a 404 (much easier) or a 410 (would require some setup/configuration via Wordpress).  This of course means that anyone visiting those URLs won't be forwarded along, but Google may not drop those redirects from the SERPs otherwise.

• Request that Google temporarily block those pages (done via GWMT), which lasts for 90 days.

• Update robots.txt to block access to the redirecting directories.

[randfish]

14 months! Wow. That is a long time indeed. Although, now that I look, Moz redirected OpenSiteExplorer just about a year ago, and we still have URLs showing for the site: command in Google too (https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aopensiteexplorer.org) so I suppose it's not that uncommon.

Glad to hear traffic and rankings are solid. Let us know if we can help out in the future!

[RosemaryB]

Thank you  Rand.    It has been 14 months since these pages were moved and I'd never seen Google retain pages anywhere near this long.

You're right of course, there has been no impact to traffic for our site as these pages weren't about our search business.

Thanks for taking a look at our issue.

Rosemary

[randfish]

Oh gosh - it's my pleasure! Thanks for being part of the Moz community I'm honored to help out.

As for the URLs - looks like everything's fine. Google often maintains old URLs in a searchable index form long after they've been 301'd, but for every query I tried, they're clearly pulling up the correct/new version of the page, so those redirects seem to be working just great. You're simply seeing the vestigal remnants of them still in Google (which isn't unusual - we had URLs from seomoz.org findable via site: queries for many months after moving to Moz, but the right, new pages were all ranking for normal queries and traffic wasn't being hurt).

Some examples:

• https://www.google.com/search?q=Enter+the+World+of+Eichler+Design
• https://www.google.com/search?q=Eichler+History+flashbacks
• https://www.google.com/search?q=eichler+resources+on+the+web+books

Unless you're also seeing a loss in search traffic/rankings, I wouldn't sweat it much. They'll disappear eventually from the site: query, too. It just takes a while.

[RosemaryB]

Wow - do I ever feel privileged to have you respond!  Thank you Rand.

You can see a batch of redirected URLs here <  site:totheweb.com eichler   >

I appreciate any suggestions.

Rosemary

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atotheweb.com+eichler&oq=site%3Atotheweb.com+eichler&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.4598j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8

[randfish]

Hi Rosemary - can you share some examples of the URLs and the queries that bring them up in search results? If so, we can likely do a diagnosis of what might be going on with Google and why the pages aren't correctly showing the redirected-to URLs.