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        4. Remove spam url errors from search console

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        • rubennunez
          rubennunez last edited by

          My site was hacked some time ago. I've since then redesigned it and obviously removed all the injection spam. Now I see in search console that I'm getting hundreds of url errors (from the spam links that no longer work).

          How do I remove them from the search console. The only option I see is "mark as fixed", but obviously they are not "fixed", rather removed.

          I've already uploaded a new sitemap and fetched the site, as well as submitted a reconsideration request that has been approved.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • monicapopa
            monicapopa @BasKierkels last edited by

            Hi Ruben,

            I had the same issue with one of the websites and what Bas has recommended is great. We've done both methods and it cleared 90% of them. We are still getting a few in the search console and I am planning to update the disavow list, and hopefully they will disappear completely.

            Hope Bas's recommendations will work for you.

            Good luck,

            Monica.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
            • ThompsonPaul
              ThompsonPaul last edited by

              Removing them from the Console will have no effect on your  site, Ruben - its' purely for your own housekeeping purposes.

              Mark them fixed to get them out of the lists so that real ones will be easier to spot as they come up. As long as the spam links are landing on a real hard 404, they will eventually drop out. But it will take a considerably long time because those spam pages are such low value that Google isn't likely to recrawl them to discover the 404 very often. (Not that that will do you any harm, just annoying to look at.)

              Also - don't be alarmed if some of those you mark "fixed" show up back in the list in a couple of months - that's not indicative of any problem.

              Hope that helps?

              Paul

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
              • BasKierkels
                BasKierkels last edited by

                Hi Ruben,

                You've uploaded a new site map so Google will correct this over time.

                Method #1: In the mean time you can manually delete the URL's from Webmaster Tools:
                https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/url-removal

                You can find this link in 'Google-index' and after that 'Remove URLs'. I have translated those terms from Dutch so give me some slack 😉

                Post the URL you can to delete and hit Enter. Will take some effort but i've noticed a couple of days ago that it works like a charm.

                In the mean time Google will remove the old URL's permanently from the index.

                Method #2: If you are familiar with .htaccess-files you can also mention the old URL's there and give a 410-status code. '410' stands for "The URL is gone and i have no new URL for you". Or - as someone wrote a couple of years ago - "It's gone, No really: it's gone."

                Perhaps this link will help you on your way:
                http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2014/11/http-410-error-pages-htaccess/

                Good luck!
                Bas

                monicapopa 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
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