Dead links-urls

[1step2heaven]

What is the quickest way to get Google to clean up dead
link? I have 74,000 dead links reported back, i have added a robot txt to
disallow and added on Google list remove from my webmaster tool 4 months ago.
The same dead links also show on the open site explores.

Thanks

[1step2heaven]

thank you 410 was what i needed.

[1step2heaven]

I had 3 inexperience developers, who did not how to write
the urls so they created many different versions. It is hard work out which is
the right version. I also have someone like BT after leavening there service 2
years ago they still seem to index my old links even though my domain is not
with them. They are all for 404 pages.

[1step2heaven]

I had 3 inexperience developers, who did not how to write
the urls so they created many different versions. It is hard work out which is
the right version. I also have someone like BT after leavening there service 2
years ago they still seem to index my old links even though my domain is not
with them. They are all for 404 pages.

[RyanKent]

Can you offer clarification as to what you view as a "dead link"?

If you mean a link to a page on your site which no longer exists, then your options are as follows:

• take John's advice and 301 the link to the most relevant page on your site

• allow the link to 404. 404 errors are a natural part of the internet. You should be sure to have the most helpful 404 page possible. Include your site's normal navigation, a search box, most popular articles, etc.

Blocking pages in robots.txt is usually a bad idea and is more likely to add to the problem rather then fix it. If you do not block the page in robots.txt, Google would then crawl the page, see the error and remove it from their index. Because you block the page they can no longer view the page so they will likely leave it in for longer.

Google normally promptly removes web pages submitted with the URL Removal Tool. The tool is designed to remove pages which can damage your site or others. For example, if confidential information was accidentally published. It is not designed to be used to remove 74k pages because you decided to remove them from your website.

If these dead links are simply pages you removed from your site, I advise you to remove the robots.txt block and then decide to 301 them or allow them to 404. Google should then clean up the links within 30-60 days.

If you want to speed up the process as much as possible, there is one other step you can take. Set a 410 (Gone) code for the pages. When Google receives a 404 response, they are unsure if the page is simply temporarily unavailable so they keep it in the index. If they receive a 410 response, you are telling Google the page is GONE and they can update their index faster.

[VictorVC]

Are the links 404 pages or just expired content?

[1step2heaven]

The links are index, i need them really cleaned up, not a
redirect, and users/customers find it frustrating

[blu42media]

You could try setting up a 301 redirect in htaccess.