Google is indexing spam pages from my site. What is the most effective way to get ride of the search results? Pages are deleted now but should I do something more?
-
A long time ago I created a forum (Invision Power Board) and it got full of spam. Massive amounts!
/forum/
I've now deleted the forum but the spam pages are still indexed on Google.
Can I do something else to hurry up the process to get ride of them?
-
Make sure /forum/ is excluded in your robots.txt file then go to Google Webmaster Tools and request a URL removal. You can request the entire directory be removed. Here's a page from their help files about the tool. http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=164734
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
-
Google Search Console issue: "This is how Googlebot saw the page" showing part of page being covered up
Hi everyone! Kind of a weird question here but I'll ask and see if anyone else has seen this: In Google Search Console when I do a fetch and render request for a specific site, the fetch and blocked resources all look A-OK. However, in the render, there's a large grey box (background of navigation) that covers up a significant amount of what is on the page. Attaching a screenshot. You can see the text start peeking out below (had to trim for confidentiality reasons). But behind that block of grey IS text. And text that apparently in the fetch part Googlebot does see and can crawl. My question: is this an issue? Should I be concerned about this visual look? Or no? Never have experienced an issue like that. I will say - trying to make a play at a featured snippet and can't seem to have Google display this page's information, despite it being the first result and the query showing a featured snippet of a result #4. I know that it isn't guaranteed for the #1 result but wonder if this has anything to do with why it isn't showing one. VmIqgFB.png
On-Page Optimization | | ChristianMKG0 -
How to find google indexed pages
I can't find where the # of indexed pages are on my google analytics. I tried the instructions below, but the index status was not an option on my dashboard. View the Index Status page: On the Webmaster Tools home page, click the site you want. On the Dashboard, click Google Index, and then click Index Status.
On-Page Optimization | | SoftwareMarketing0 -
Deleted pages still registering as 404 pages.
I have a an all html site that I can only work on through the ftp. The previous marketing company ran a script that built thousands of location landing pages, but all they did was change the tags and headers and the keywords in the pages, other than that they are all duplicate pages. I removed them, but Google is reading them as 404 pages. How do I tell Google those pages don't exist? or do I just need to let the bots crawl it a few times and it will see that eventually?
On-Page Optimization | | SwanJob0 -
Can Page Authority of a site be higher than its Domain Authority?
I own a website called Takeyourtips.com. While doing a search no Google, I found that the page authority of the home page (31) is higher than the domain authority (23). I was wondering if it's really possible because my understanding was page authority of a page is determined by its domain authority. Therefore, it the domain authority of a website is 23, none of its page could have a higher page authority. Plus, upon consulting an SEO expert, I was told that neither Domain Authority or Page Authority of a page carries any importance as far as higher ranking of a website is concerned. Is this true? Thanks in advance for the answers. Cheers, Sushant large
On-Page Optimization | | suskanchan0 -
Handling Deleted Pages
The backstory: My site has a fantasy sportsbook where users can place "bets" on pretty much anything. Each game has a unique matchup page, where the odds are displayed and any conversation about the game takes place. Example here. About 95% of the games are automatically graded, but I have to manually grade the rest. Therefore, as soon as every game starts I check to see if any users have made a pick on it, and if not I delete it because it reduces my workload. The problem: About 15% of my search-driven traffic is queries for games that no longer exist, which makes sense because nobody bets on the super obscure games and these games are very easy to rank for. I am currently redirecting them to my 404 page but I'm worried that all of these hits are hurting my reputation with the big G. Would it be better to noindex all of these pages at first and take the noindex away as soon as I'm positive that the game will stay?
On-Page Optimization | | PatrickGriffith0 -
Indexed pages in Google webmaster tools
Hi Mozzers, Very quick question. Google WM tools interface has updated and I want to confirm I'm looking at the correct figure. If I look up 'Your site on the web' / 'search queries' / then the 'pages' - this is correct indexation figure yes? This differs from the 'site:' command but that's always the case. Can anyone confirm, Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Bush_JSM0 -
Why would my homepage be ranked lower (Page Rank 2) than my other pages on the site (PR3) ?
Why would my homepage be ranked lower (Page Rank 2) than my other pages on the site (PR3) ?
On-Page Optimization | | dmurtagh0 -
DUPLICATE PAGE VIA ONPAGE SEARCH
Hi, we have a fashion shop and we try to keep the page title as unique as possible. However google also indexes the search so the say search for brand gucci - type - dress - size 8 - then it indexes it with the homepage title rather then what the searched for. Should I block google from indexing search variation (because there could be thousand of variations) or is there a module that would use the search as a page title so gucci dress 8 for example. Many thanks for your time.
On-Page Optimization | | reallyitsme0