Should I deindex my pages?
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I recently changed the URLs on a website to make them tidier and easier to follow. I put 301s in place to direct all the previous page names to the new ones. However, I didn't read moz's guide which says I should leave the old sitemap online for a few weeks afterwards. As I result, webmaster tools is showing duplicate page titles (which means duplicate pages) for the old versions of the pages I have renamed. Since the old versions are no longer on the sitemap, google can no longer access them to find the 301s I have put in place.
Is this a problem that will fix itself over time or is there a way to quicken up the process? I could use webmaster tools to remove these old urls, but I'm not sure if this is recommended. Alternatively, I could try and recreate the old sitemap, but this would take a lot of time.
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Glad to hear it! Yeah, patience isn't easy, that's for sure.
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Good the hear it went well.
Dr Peat,
Had some great advice.
glad to know it's working.
Thomas
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Thanks for replying. As it happens, I checked wmt this morning and found that all of the old pages had been deindexed on their own (with the exception of 2 that had not been 301'd - they've been sorted now) and there are now no duplicate title warnings. The site is also looking better in SERPs.
You are right, I just needed to wait a few weeks and show some patience. Its quite easy to get impatient when justifying our cost to a client.
Thanks again.
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Just checking in - has the situation improved in the month since you posted the question? I tend to agree with Thomas that it's usually just a waiting game, assuming the 301-redirects are working properly. It never hurts to use a header checker, just in case (it's amazing how often redirects get implemented poorly).
You could re-create the old sitemap if the transition is stalled. I'd avoid actively removing the old URLs, as that could interfere with making sure the link equity from the old URLs passes to the new ones. The only issue would be if you suspect duplicate content problems are harming you.
The devil is in the details on these situations, and it depends a lot on the size of the site, etc.
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I do not know how big your old site was however if you have just done this you may see some overflow as the website cache has yet to die away on the old site.
You can always use the way back machine or archive.com/.org I know it's one of the two
after that follow the guide in Moz along with using a tool like screaming spider frog SEO the free version covers 500 pages for free however the Pro version is required to do redirects but makes it so easy it's well worth it.
That Way you can find your old site the way it was. And what the names of links Used to be. However if you have correctly 301 redirected the old links to the new site. Meaning equivalent pages then this should not be an issue. You have to allow Google time to index your website as well as the index for your old site. Get rid of I would use the tool in Google Webmaster tools and tell Google that you have moved your website this will allow it to be indexed or for quickly. However it may be complicated to have that happen without a new domain.
It does not sound like a crisis to me. However only you know how you conducted the 301 redirects.
Sincerely,
Thomas
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