Removing a page in GSC - anyone done this?
-
I've deleted a bunch of pages, but they're still indexed by Google and showing up 404s. All links to these pages have been removed. Because they're showing a 404, our web dev team are saying that they can't implement a noindex tag, so I came across this -
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals
Anyone tried this? Or got a better idea?
We've also added all the pages to robots.txt but they still haven't been de-indexed.
Cheers,
Rhys
-
No problem! I just did this a few days ago, so I'm not sure yet. I would imagine that if the URLs aren't linked anywhere or listed on XML, then IF they come back to them, they'll see a 404 response and move on.
-
Thanks, Logan! Did you have any issues with it being removed as a short term measure then? It does mention that it should only be used as a temporary fix.
Cheers,
Rhys
-
Hi Rhys,
The page remove tool in GSC is for temporary removal, but since the pages are actually gone, it's likely they won't come back. I actually just did this a few days ago for the same reason.
Blocking the pages with robots.txt will not remove them from the index. Robots.txt disallows only prevent crawling, not indexing.
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
-
Why is my site stuck on page 2 even though it has higher DA?
Hi, I'm just trying to figure out why we're still not on first page for 'criminal lawyer sydney' (stuck on result #15) - I checked out SEO Moz and I can see the Domain Authority for our site 'criminal-lawyer.com.au' - is at 23 which is higher than other sites that rank on first page of this search. I've done a bunch of technical stuff on the site too - so if anyone can give any insight on why this could be happening it would be much appreicated. Thanks!
Local Listings | | SEOByTheMinute0 -
Preferred URL structure for directory pages?
Hi Moz-Mind, We've got a bunch of duplicate content issues in our directory of trucking-related businesses, caused by search terms that can appear in any order, (classic mistake). We're taking advantage of this our work on URLs to try to improve our URL structure, and I'm not sure which way I want to go. These are the options we're considering. What does the Moz-mind think of each of them? example.com/location-name/service-name example.com/service-name/location-name example.com/service-name-near-location-name For the moment location-name would be a city & state abbreviation, like atlanta-ga, (unless it's better to use something else). Since these are search URLs, it's also possible to add a distance restriction, and a keyword, to the search criteria. How do you suggest adding the distance restriction? example.com/service-name/location-name/50-miles example.com/service-name/within-50-miles/location-name example.com/service-name-within-50-miles-of-location-name And the keyword? example.com/service-name/location-name/keyword example.com/service-name/location-name/keyword/{actual-keyword} example.com/service-name-near-location-name/keyword Something else? I was leaning toward example.com/service-name/location-name/within-50-miles, but I thought of the /service-name-near-location-name/ and /service-name/within-50-miles-of/location-name options today and really like how they make sense both to computers and to people, not unlike example.com/GA/atlanta/service-name/50 I'm looking forward to hearing what the community thinks. There must be an established best practice for directories, but if it's kind of ugly I'd like to find an even better way, if possible. Thanks, John
Local Listings | | 4RS_John0 -
Is there any harm to display NAP more than once on a location page ?
Hi All, I currently have location specific pages and my branch information(NAP) is currently displayed at the bottom in the page content. I was thinking off displaying the NAP again higher up the page so it's very visible for the user possibly under a h tag heading as well. Do you think it would be spammy or harm my seo efforts it my NAP was displayed twice on a page ?. Once in the content which currently it's not visible unless the user clicks on the read more link in the content on the bottom of the page , and again further up the page where I have some white space which I can utilize Any thoughts greatly appreciated. thanks Peter
Local Listings | | PeteC120 -
What is the optimum number of links on a page?
I have a local content based website which gives information of services under different categories and subcategories in a segment across multiple localities. Our menu is found across all pages and the menu has about 150 different links to sub-categories and categories. On any listings page that comes up, when you choose a particular category or sub-category, we have another 100 links relating to the individual listings in addition to the menu which is consistent across all pages. Is this a problem?
Local Listings | | prsntsnh0 -
Competitor outranking me on google with their yelp, facebook and youtube pages
I'm working to rank for a local search term (my city wedding photographers). I'm frustrated that my competitor is outranking me not with their website (they are no. #9 and I'm #6) but with their Yelp account (#1) Facebook Account (#5) and Youtube account (#7 - not outranking me, but right below me). I'm going to continue working on my SEO to hopefully get higher up, but even then, they are basically dominating page 1 with their links. It gets worse on page 2. They are showing up 5 times for youtube/vimeo videos, and 1 time with a spammy landing page with no images, full of keyword anchored links to their main site. What gives? Since when are social media profiles outranking local sites on google organic searches? Could it be that our keyword is just so low competition that google has allowed all this stuff to rank so highly?
Local Listings | | studio35design0 -
Removing website from search while you have Pending Google Places Listing
Hello, If you have assign a website in Google places that is in Pending mode, and you removed the website in WMT, from the searches. Will be denied in google places? Thanks for your help.
Local Listings | | EVERWORLD.ENTERTAIMENT1 -
How is a competitor franchise ranking all for all 3 Local results with unclaimed G+ pages in a search for the national corporation?
My company is an individual franchise of a national corporation - every franchise is operates as [National Corporate Brand Name] + a chosen descriptor such as "Premiere" or the names of the owners such as "Smith Jones". A logged-out Google search for just the national brand name returns the corporate website first, followed by the website of a competing local franchise and 3 Local listings for their offices. These listings are all unclaimed and unverified on Google+ and have no reviews or posts. The corporate Twitter is next, followed by my franchise's website. The corporate Facebook is the last result on the page. How can this competing franchise rank for all 3 Local listings with unclaimed pages? My company operates several more offices than the competitor in the same area and I regularly post to their G+ pages which I verified several months ago. Is it because the competitor's website just holds significantly more weight in Google than our own? A search for the brand name + the town where our offices are in does usually return our Local listing pages, but that limits our reach to those specific towns. Anyone have any insight on this?
Local Listings | | WGW0 -
G+ Local Business Page vs. Brand Page Problems
I'm struggling a bit with a Brand page vs. Local page on G+ and wondering if anyone here has had this same problem and found a solution.... This is related to a business that has a does have a physical address for a head admin office, but they provides a financial service to people across Canada over the phone. So although the business has an address and local phone number for admin purposes, it doesn't want people showing up at that address and definitely doesn't want to be considered a "Local" business. However, Google automatically creates the local listing in google maps, which the business has claimed but otherwise does not want to maintain. Instead the business has a Brand page on G+ (not local) which it has linked to the domain and actively maintains as their G+ business page. The trouble is, Google is associating showing the local listing as the rich snippet in in their organic result instead of the Brand page. Is there anything the company can do to further help Google associate the Brand G+ page with the website instead of the local listing? I already tried removing the link to the website from the local listing in hopes that would dis-associate it with the domain. That got rid of the rich snippet, but now the local listing shows up as a separate organic result just below the main company website, which is just as bad or maybe worse. To confirm, the website IS linked to the BRAND page using rel=publisher, and the brand page does have a verified link to the company domain. Thanks for the help!
Local Listings | | PlusROI1