Error 404 and Google

Duplicate content?

[djgreg]

Hi,

I just deleted about 800 sites from my server and due to a reorganisation. I have a error404.html which appears everytime a user tries to access a deleted file. It basically says that the site has moved and offers some links to the main sections index pages of my site.
So far so good.
But: What will Googlebot see when spidering the deleted sites. She will see 800 sites with exactly the same content (This site has moved click here).
Will she regard it as dup content? What is the best way to get these deleted sites out of google?

thanks
greg

[abates]

So long as the server is delivering a 404 status along with the error page, you should have no worries.

[RobBroekhuis]

So long as the server is delivering a 404 status along with the error page, you should have no worries.

How do I do that? I have a line

ErrorDocument 404 [mydomain.com...]

in my .htaccess, but when I check my logs the code returned is a 302.

[jdMorgan]

Correct syntax calls for a local URL-path. See the Apache ErrorDocument documentation [httpd.apache.org]:

ErrorDocument 404 /notfound.html

Jim

[RobBroekhuis]

Thanks Jim,
That worked. I recall that I tried something like that originally and it didn't work, so I put in the full url - but I must have made a different mistake at the time.
Rob

[djgreg]

hi guys,

thanks for your answers!

greg