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    4. How to properly remove pages and a category from Google's index

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    How to properly remove pages and a category from Google's index

    On-Page Optimization
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    • VinceWicks
      VinceWicks last edited by

      I want to remove this category http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/ and all the pages in that category (e.g. http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/7386.html ) from Google's index.

      I used the following string in the "Reomval URS" section in Google Webmaster Tools:

      http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/*

      is that correct or I better use http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/ ?

      Thanks in advance.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • VinceWicks
        VinceWicks last edited by

        Thanks for your replies guys. Now I know how to proceed. 🙂

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • benjaminspak
          benjaminspak @William.Lau last edited by

          In addition I would put the "No Index" meta attribute in the pages.

          http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93710

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • William.Lau
            William.Lau last edited by

            It sounds like you want to de-index them.

            Go into your robots.txt and disallow Google from the category..

            It will look something like this:

            User-agent: googlebot or *

            Disallow: /web-design-news-all/

            benjaminspak 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • Highland
              Highland last edited by

              Are you removing the pages or just trying to de-index them? If you're trying to remove them, make sure the old pages return a 404 so they can't be restored to the index. If you're trying to remove them, make sure they are excluded by robots.txt or meta tag.

              Here's the WMT Help page on the topic

              http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1663427

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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