Deleting and renaming files

[RammsteinNicCage]

I just deleted a section of my site. Is there anything I can do to get it out of search engines? Is there an http code that would work?

Also, I have a lot of images on my site that I want to rename. They're currently named something like widgetblue.jpg, widgetred.jpg, widget2weird.jpg, widget2whatever.jpg, etc. I want to rename them to widgetimage1.jpg, widgetimage2.jpg, widget2image1.jpg, widget2image2.jpg, etc. I don't want an error log full of images though, is there anything I can do about that?

Jennifer

[The Contractor]

I just deleted a section of my site. Is there anything I can do to get it out of search engines? Is there an http code that would work?

Nope, just have a custom 404.html and/or if you deleted a whole path/folder/directory put a 410 (410=gone) in your .htaccess.

Also, I have a lot of images on my site that I want to rename. They're currently named something like widgetblue.jpg, widgetred.jpg, widget2weird.jpg, widget2whatever.jpg, etc. I want to rename them to widgetimage1.jpg, widgetimage2.jpg, widget2image1.jpg, widget2image2.jpg, etc. I don't want an error log full of images though, is there anything I can do about that

Use a program like "quick file rename" to rename the files, and then another program like "search & replace" to go through your html files and make the changes.

;)

[RammsteinNicCage]

That quick file rename thing sounds very appealing and I'll definitely look into it, but that wasn't what I meant. I need to stop being so vague. :p

Other people link to my images for avatars and stuff, that's why I would have a ton of 404 errors for them. Is there anything I can do about that? I don't want to prevent them from linking though... just want a cleaner error log.

Jennifer

[HughMungus]

Redirects.

[Reflect]

Is there anything I can do to get it out of search engines?

Sure is, the way back machine [archive.org].

Brian

[RammsteinNicCage]

How would I set up the redirects? Would I have to do one for each one? I have about 3600 pictures which is quite a few (read as: way too many).

And how does the way back machine help remove a link from search engines? (I've had quite a bit of fun playing around with that toy in the past :))

Jennifer

[Reflect]

And how does the way back machine help remove a link from search engines?

Whoops!

I miss read. I thought you were looking for a way to retrieve the lost information. Time to get new glasses I guess.

Brian

[HughMungus]

Not sure how to do it on IIS/Windows but I know it's possible.

On Linux hosts, just change it in the .htaccess.

[RammsteinNicCage]

But would I have to have a different line for each image in the htaccess? Or would I be blocking 404's from ALL images?

Jennifer