Google Indexing Non Existant Pages

Hey. A few months ago, i restructured my site, so alot of the pages have been renamed, and no longer exist. However, google still seems to index them.

Is there something i need to do to fix this? Or do i just give it time?

Thanks,
Dan.

 

Yeah, I would just give it time. These pages are just still in the Google index... they'll probably gone soon.

Just make sure you're not linking to these pages anywhere - and check that you have a proper 404 error page that helps people reach the right page (or just your main page).

- Hannes Johnson

 

I am seeing the same thing. Google seems to try and crawl the same (now deleted) page over and over and over - and my poor server keeps sending it 404 - 404 - 404. I guess it will get the message eventually.

 

You can wait for a long time, or just tell google it no longer exists. There is a de-indexing tool somewhere (forget the precise name, but google that and you will probably find it).
I've seen a page last in the google index for YEARS (not just crawled, indexed) after it had disappeared.

 

You can speed up the process by excluding them from googlebot in the robots.txt

 

Use Google sitemap to properly reindex your site.

 

But - isn't sitmap "inclusive" and not "exclusive"? Can you say in your sitemap - "Hey, these pages don't exist" ?

 

I don't know that you can block URL's from being spidered in google sitemaps. You can see what URL's google knows don't work. It sees the weirdest URL's, but doesn't tell me I have non-working links. I have no idea where those URL's come from.
Anyhow - it's not really the spidering one should worry about, but the indexing. Does google still show those URL's in the serps? Also, in order to keep the link-love that flows to those old pages, there should be a 301 redirect from the old to the new (or just a simple page with a link to the new page).

 

why dont submit a reinclusion request ? login to your "Google webmaster tools" > Tools > Submit a reinclusion request .

this my solve your problem

 

The problem is that TOO much of his site is included, not that there is no page indexed.

 

It also happens to one of my site before. It's has a forum (few threads and post only) but then I discontinue it. But until now google still show search results if I search the specific thread but did not exists anymore.

What if you will use redirects, i.e. 301 redirects?