Delete already indexed pages

harran

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2022
Messages
226
Reaction score
70
Got my website indexed by google and other search engines pretty well but now I want to re-write the whole website and change it's design, basically make a 2.0 version of it. How can I delete all the pages that got indexed so I can resubmit a new sitemap in a few weeks? Also it is good for seo or bad?

Thanks!
 
Got my website indexed by google and other search engines pretty well but now I want to re-write the whole website and change it's design, basically make a 2.0 version of it. How can I delete all the pages that got indexed so I can resubmit a new sitemap in a few weeks? Also it is good for seo or bad?

Thanks!
Add the noindex meta tag to each page you want removed from index. It's bad for SEO since these pages which might have some traffic will no longer be searchable, but if you're trying to free up crawl budget for more valuable pages then this makes sense.
 
Add the noindex meta tag to each page you want removed from index. It's bad for SEO since these pages which might have some traffic will no longer be searchable, but if you're trying to free up crawl budget for more valuable pages then this makes sense.
Thanks for the reply.

The bad thing is that I wiped the whole old website and I have nothing left to add the noindex meta tag (it was a wordpress website)

Atm I’m building the new one and blocked google crawlers to index it.
 
Thanks for the reply.

The bad thing is that I wiped the whole old website and I have nothing left to add the noindex meta tag (it was a wordpress website)

Atm I’m building the new one and blocked google crawlers to index it.
Ok got it. Sounds like you're mostly starting from scratch and you're worried about pages that are currently indexed but lead nowhere: 404. Do I have that correct?

If so, then your 404 pages will not rank (they're not indexed) and SEO should be fine.

More info here: https://clearpath.online/resources/do-404-errors-hurt-seo/#:~:text=Your%20404%20Error%20Page%20Will,be%20indexed%20by%20search%20engines.
 
Ok got it. Sounds like you're mostly starting from scratch and you're worried about pages that are currently indexed but lead nowhere: 404. Do I have that correct?

If so, then your 404 pages will not rank (they're not indexed) and SEO should be fine.

More info here: https://clearpath.online/resources/do-404-errors-hurt-seo/#:~:text=Your 404 Error Page Will,be indexed by search engines.
I see.

Should I leave it like that or do I need to request deleting from search console for all the pages indexed? Will google delete them if they do not longer exist after a period of time?
 
Google should delete 4xx from index in days or 2-3 weeks. However, they will continue visiting those pages for months, years maybe. That's normal.

If you don't plan to reinstate those URLs and you create a completely new website architecture, set 410 code to them.

This code tells that those URLs were deleted forever.
 
Simply delete all the pages and rewrite. Google will adjust its search engine for your content automatically.
 
If you have pages on your website that have already been indexed by search engines, you can remove them by using the "noindex" meta tag. This tag tells search engines not to index the page, and it will remove it from their index. You can also use a robots.txt file to block the page from being indexed. Additionally, you can use the URL removal tool in Google's Search Console to request that a page be removed from their index.
 
Simply delete all the pages and rewrite. Google will adjust its search engine for your content automatically.
I see, thanks.

When submitting the sitemap it’s okay to submit just the “parent” sitemap for example x.com/sitemap.xml or all categories from the parent sitemap for example x.com/posts.xml, x.com/authors.xml, x.com/categories.xml
 
I see, thanks.

When submitting the sitemap it’s okay to submit just the “parent” sitemap for example x.com/sitemap.xml or all categories from the parent sitemap for example x.com/posts.xml, x.com/authors.xml, x.com/categories.xml
Just the parent sitemap is sufficient.
 
If you want to delete all the pages on your website that have been indexed by Google and other search engines, there are a few steps you can take:

  1. Use the "noindex" meta tag: You can add the "noindex" meta tag to the HTML code of each page on your website that you want to delete. This tag tells search engines not to index the page, which will remove it from the search engine results.
  2. Use the "Disallow" directive in your robots.txt file: You can use the "Disallow" directive in your website's robots.txt file to prevent search engines from crawling and indexing specific pages or directories on your website.
  3. Delete the pages from your website: If you want to delete the pages from your website permanently, you can do so by removing the files from your server and updating your website's navigation and links to remove any references to the deleted pages.
It is important to note that deleting pages from your website and removing them from the search engine results can negatively impact your SEO (search engine optimization). This is because search engines use the content and links on your website to determine the relevance and quality of your site, and removing this content can reduce the value and authority of your site in the eyes of search engines.

Therefore, it is generally recommended to avoid deleting pages from your website unless it is absolutely necessary. If you want to make significant changes to your website, such as redesigning it or rewriting the content, it may be better to update the existing pages.
 
Got my website indexed by google and other search engines pretty well but now I want to re-write the whole website and change it's design, basically make a 2.0 version of it. How can I delete all the pages that got indexed so I can resubmit a new sitemap in a few weeks? Also it is good for seo or bad?

Thanks!hello!
 
Got my website indexed by google and other search engines pretty well but now I want to re-write the whole website and change it's design, basically make a 2.0 version of it. How can I delete all the pages that got indexed so I can resubmit a new sitemap in a few weeks? Also it is good for seo or bad?

Thanks!
hello!
 
If you want to delete all the pages on your website that have been indexed by Google and other search engines, there are a few steps you can take:

  1. Use the "noindex" meta tag: You can add the "noindex" meta tag to the HTML code of each page on your website that you want to delete. This tag tells search engines not to index the page, which will remove it from the search engine results.
  2. Use the "Disallow" directive in your robots.txt file: You can use the "Disallow" directive in your website's robots.txt file to prevent search engines from crawling and indexing specific pages or directories on your website.
  3. Delete the pages from your website: If you want to delete the pages from your website permanently, you can do so by removing the files from your server and updating your website's navigation and links to remove any references to the deleted pages.
It is important to note that deleting pages from your website and removing them from the search engine results can negatively impact your SEO (search engine optimization). This is because search engines use the content and links on your website to determine the relevance and quality of your site, and removing this content can reduce the value and authority of your site in the eyes of search engines.

Therefore, it is generally recommended to avoid deleting pages from your website unless it is absolutely necessary. If you want to make significant changes to your website, such as redesigning it or rewriting the content, it may be better to update the existing pages.
I worked hard to raise my DR to 33, hopefully this will not have a huge impact on seo.

Also in my niche I will focus in the first months on Ads to drive traffic on my website. Can this get me higher in rankings if I have more people on the website or the damage is already done after I deleted the old website and pages?
 
OP check on search console if there is any problem with the site/page, I had same problem and It's fixed after
I fix the pages problem.
 
Back
Top