Site Hacked: Is it Faster and Better to 301 or 404 Irrelevant URLs?
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Hey Everyone,
So our site was hacked which created a large amount of irrelevant URLs on our domain; resulting in thousands of 404 errors and pages coming up for searches unrelated to our brand. The question is now that the issues have been resolved (and site re-submitted) would it be quicker (and more ideal) to redirect important 404 errors that see traffic, have links…etc. although not relevant or just let everything 404 out?
We’re not as concerned with offering a relevant user experience because these are not in our demographic but want to avoid these pages convoluting our analytics as well as issues that might arise from Google thinking these topics do apply.
Any help or insight would be very appreciated.
Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns or we could provide further details that might help.
Looking forward to hearing from all of you!
Thanks in advance.
Best,
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Hi Ben!
I have similar problem with one of my sites. It was hacked before and now Google is showing number of irrelevant links that too in a different language. I have implemented redirects to most of them but they still appear in results.
- What do you think about blocking them in robots.txt?
- Or requesting URL removals in GSC?
I'd really appreciate any help from the community!
Thanks!
SK
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Hi Ben,
No, will not expedite it. It will take time for Google index to catch up and remove them. I know it's frustrating, so just be patient with it. Most of us, including myself, have been through it. Good luck!
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Hello Kevin,
Thank you for your response and help. That’s a great point, do you think it would help speed things along if we also redirect on top of the 410 error? - Just in case and more in the meantime.
Please let us know if we could provide any further details that might help.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Thanks again.
Best,
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If not relevant, why 301 them? 410 them and remove url's in search console.
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