How Long To Remove Old Pages?

... when its a total update

[austtr]

I've recently updated a site from top to bottom.... deframed, new file names, new folder arrangements, new everything.....

I've put in a custom 404 page and some "this page has moved" signboards for the major pages that many users had bookmarked.

Google has visited and is picking up the new pages which is all well and good... but how long are the old pages likely to stay in Google's index?

[troels nybo nielsen]

What does googlebot get when she tries to spider the old pages? 404's? Then you must consider the risk that she simply comes back, and the pages stay in the index. It would be good to give her some 301's with a .htaccess file. That should solve the problem in a few weeks.

[DerekH]

troels nybo nielsen
>>It would be good to give her some 301's with a .htaccess file. That should solve the problem in a few weeks. <<

Yes, but it only solves the problem in a few weeks if Google calls by.

One of my sites has new files that are accessible via new links on the home page, and the home page is PR5.
Google has called by once since August 27th, and the fresh entry lasted a couple of days and was then discarded.

I'm not particularly perturbed, but it's been almost 8 weeks and nothing else has been visited at all. And that's from a PR5 page...
DerekH