Is there any way to get google to deindex all of the pages from a certain domain so you can start again? The reason I ask is my mate is completely redoing his website but keeping the old domain. He has about 300 or so pages indexed which don't actually exist. Thanks in advance, Dan
You should 301 redirect those pages via Htaccess to your domain. Thats the best thing to do. Deindexing your pages from google via robots, or metatags would be stupid as your page will get dropped.
Yes, the best thing is to redirect them, this way you will retain existing links to thos pages. Google will forget those inexistent pages soon, so make it now!!
Use the removal tool. Be careful...very powerful stuff. I'd post the link but i'm not allowed yet. If you search google for "remove your url", it's the first result.
Dont follow the google removal tool advice or the robots.txt. You arent trying to get your website into the gutter of google. You have to redirect those missing pages via 301, its the best solution and the only one you should consider. Otherwise your going to end up with a website not indexed in the search engines at all untill it gets reindexed which could take weeks or months, and it might send your website to the slumps too ranking wise.
I tried for over a year to 301 redirect the old pages and google still kept them in the index. It was annoying for me as the google sitemaps kept on saying the pages don't exist. These urls eventually turned to supplemental so I used the removal tool to get rid of them. Thats Just my experience.
I've had a lot of luck with the URL Removal tool, though obviously you have to be careful to only remove the pages that need removing.
I removed few pages using removal tool and it works fine. Dont get scared of removing tool. Once you confirm about the pages u need to remove. Submit it in the remval tool and remove it. But I suggest .htaccess 301 redirect is best way. Since my hosting company doesnt support .htaccess I used the google removal tool.
oh no don't redirect, just make the custom 404 error and have a link to homepage. redirect made me sick of duplicated content penalty.
It has nothing to do with duplicated content. A 301 tells google the page has moved perm to the domain now. All the link juice that these missing pages have will get transfered to the domain now. A 404 page would be a complete waste!
Google actually responds to 301's very well. I do it all the time with no problems. Its the cleanest and best way and the most recomended.