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        4. How to properly remove pages and a category from Google's index

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        How to properly remove pages and a category from Google's index

        On-Page Optimization
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        • VinceWicks
          VinceWicks last edited by

          I want to remove this category http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/ and all the pages in that category (e.g. http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/7386.html ) from Google's index.

          I used the following string in the "Reomval URS" section in Google Webmaster Tools:

          http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/*

          is that correct or I better use http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/ ?

          Thanks in advance.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • VinceWicks
            VinceWicks last edited by

            Thanks for your replies guys. Now I know how to proceed. 🙂

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • benjaminspak
              benjaminspak @William.Lau last edited by

              In addition I would put the "No Index" meta attribute in the pages.

              http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93710

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • William.Lau
                William.Lau last edited by

                It sounds like you want to de-index them.

                Go into your robots.txt and disallow Google from the category..

                It will look something like this:

                User-agent: googlebot or *

                Disallow: /web-design-news-all/

                benjaminspak 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • Highland
                  Highland last edited by

                  Are you removing the pages or just trying to de-index them? If you're trying to remove them, make sure the old pages return a 404 so they can't be restored to the index. If you're trying to remove them, make sure they are excluded by robots.txt or meta tag.

                  Here's the WMT Help page on the topic

                  http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1663427

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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