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This is a follow-up to a thread last week. If I'm in wrong forum, please accept my apology. Also, I'm not a host, but a designer running a few sites. So my hosting knowledge is (ahem...) VERY limited.
I re-designed an entire site 6 months ago. Previous pages had been thoroughly indexed by e.g. Google but only a few of the NEW pages have so far been indexed.
Now I see that Google bots are still trying to find those old pages, and gets 404 all the time. In my custom made 404 page, I have a refresh tag that's re-directing users to the new, existing home page.
Questions are:
1) Assuming I knew how to change the results from 404 to 301 (permanently moved) or 410 (file not existing any more), would that make the Googlebots more interested in indexing the NEW pages? Or will I just loose the indexing of the OLD pages, ending up with almost no pages in Google?
2) Assuming Googlebots would start indexing the NEW pages if they got a 301 or 410 instead of the 404, how can I actually make the change? Is that for my host to do?
Please accept my absolute ignorance and asking idiotic questions. But any hints, insights or general drivel on the topic would help.
Oh, I'm on a Linux/RedHat and have C-Panel 5 if that matters.
Cheers,
D
In the long term Google will remove all pages from the index if no links can be found. But to speed up this process, you can make sure the bot sees an error code. A 410 (Gone) seems to be better if the page is really removed. A 404 (Not found) could be interpreted as file could come back. So Google will check it several times before removing. A 301 is better than a 4xx if the file is renamed or moved to another directory (i.e. you know the new URL).
First, you could test what error code is sent with the custom made 404-page. Go to the Server Header Check [webmasterworld.com] page of WebmasterWorld, enter the URL of an old page (one that results in the custom made 404) and click on the submit button. The result should have "HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found" instead of "HTTP/1.1 200 OK".
To find more about 301s, search on this site for '301 redirect [google.com]' and I'm sure you can find the needed information.
Sorry slow response...
Thanks for taking your time. Much appreciated.
Have now redirected all old, invallid URLs by 301's (duly checked with the utility your recommended) and keeping my fingers crossed that the SE will go to the new pages and index them instead....
Cheers,
D
