How to Properly Remove Page(s) from a Site Without Damaging SEO

Every owner of any Internet resource should know and remember that incorrect deletion of pages from a site negatively affects the quality of SEO. This is due to an error that has occurred in the system: when The ldeleting pages from a site, The link to this page is still on Google’s robots watchlist.

In addition, the presence of such pages leads to other equally important problems:

• Loss of trust from users towards a particular site.
• A decrease in a website’s ranking that occurs in the Google system.

But in some situations, deleting pages from a site cannot be avoided: what to do in such a case and how to correctly perform the entire process?

Main reasons for deleting pages from a site

There may be several reasons why URLs are removed from Google search results using Google Search Console or other methods. Among the most common are:

• outdated content on individual pages;
• insufficiently strong technical structure;
• poor design;
• non-compliance with the policy regarding content and other.

Before deleting, you should conduct an audit of the content. In some cases, it is enough to leave the page, but clean it – delete all the content or use a redirect.

Content audit and improvement

Content audit – an important and useful procedure that will help you check the quality of content on a particular page. Sometimes it is enough to improve the content by making a few minor changes, edits. If the existing content is outdated, you can redirect the user to a page with new content.

Deleting a page after a content audit is necessary when the structure of this content is outdated. As a result, even after making changes, it will not be possible to correct the situation.

301 redirect or user redirection

Redirect 301 is a special code that indicates that the page has been moved to another address. Use redirect 301 is recommended in cases where it is advisable to redirect the user from old content to a page with new content. As a result, you will have to use a simple and clear method – visit cPanel to create a redirect.

To use a 301 redirect, you need to do the following:

1. Go to domain settings.
2. Select “Redirects”.
3. Select 301.
4. Move the URLs (old and new) into the appropriate fields.

Another equally popular option is to install Yoast SEO Premium on a website developed on WordPress.

What content does not need indexing

Indexing is a process in which information about the content of a specific site is collected and then entered into the search engine database. However, this is not always the case. indexing is really necessary and useful for individual pages.

Mark a specific list of pages that do not need to be indexed:

• Advertising one-page sites.
• Search results on Internet resources.
• Administrator pages.
• Thank you pages and stuff.

In addition, there are other equally common reasons why pages in Google need to be hidden: duplicate content, keyword cannibalization, crawl budget. Let’s consider each of the possible reasons in more detail.

Duplicate content/pages

Duplicate content leads to the fact that identical versions of content/pages will appear in search. And the content on such pages may overlap partially or completely. Duplicate content has a negative impact on SEO, so you should regularly check pages and get rid of similar content.

Keyword Cannibalization

Another equally common concept is– keyword cannibalization. Under this concept is considered the process when completely identical pages of the site begin to compete with each other for search queries. This happens due to the fact that several pages have been optimized for the same keywords. As a result of cannibalization of keywords search engines can not accurately determine which page can be called the most relevant, based on certain user queries.

Irrational use of crawl budget or crawl limit

Crawling budget

– is a limited resource (crawling limit), which search engines allocate for the procedure of indexing pages for the purpose of their further crawling by bots. If there is a process of excessive consumption of the crawling budget, irrational waste, such pages should be hidden from Google. Otherwise, Google will spend too much time searching for pages that do not bring enough value. Instead, the system can spend time indexing more useful content.

Basic Ways to Remove URLs from Google Search Results

In order to launch remove url from google search results It is necessary to consider a certain list of basic methods:

Tags noindex

If the robot completes the page scanning process (noindex tag), it will automatically remove it from the search results.

To add the noindex tag, you can choose one of two proven methods:

1. Use tags in the page’s HTML codes.
2. Configure the return of the noindex header in HTTP responses.

Adding such tags is especially convenient when using all kinds of CMS systems.

Robots.txt file

Using robots.txt file, you can easily provide the search engine with a special “instruction” indicating the list of sections/pages that can and should be promoted. The advantages of using robots.txt files are directly related to significant savings in the crawling limit.

Page deletion: 404 or 410 server response

404 and 410 server responses indicate that the page will be automatically removed from the index immediately after scanning. Both codes perform the same functions, but 410 server response is considered faster and more convenient.

Working with Google Search Console

Possibilities Google Search Console allow you to perform temporary blocking – a step-by-step instruction of all actions is provided specifically for this. For a full and final deletion, you will need to receive a 404 or 410 server response.

Canonical tag (rel=”canonical”)

Using canonical tag (rel=”canonical”), you can easily get rid of such common problems as duplicate content. As a result, you will be able to determine and accurately indicate: which page can and should be considered the main one, and therefore is allowed to be indexed. Thus, the canonical tag (rel=”canonical”) is often compared to special “hints”, and therefore Google can ignore them.

How to Maintain Website Quality When Deleting Pages: Key Risks

Deleting a few pages not only has a positive impact on crawl limit, but also provides the owner with a couple more important advantages.

There are several points where proper removal really helps:

However, the quality of the site can be spoiled if you make some mistakes in your actions. It is necessary to consider the common risks.

Incoming links

One of the first and possible risks is incoming links. Often there is a deletion of pages where there are already incoming links, which have a direct impact on the ranking process. As a result, when pages with incoming links are removed, these signals are lost.

Internal links

All pages on the site must have high-quality interlinking between each other – internal links. This solution has a positive effect on the link weight, provides the necessary relevance. Therefore, when deleting pages, all internal links also disappear, which negatively affects the relevance, the PageRank of the pages.

Seasonal traffic fluctuations

Trend and seasonal fluctuations in traffic lead to various problems in the stable operation of the Internet resource. In this case, the traffic may be quite low or almost zero, but in certain periods the traffic may resume again. This indicates widespread seasonal traffic fluctuations. When removing some pages, you should always keep in mind possible temporary/seasonal fluctuations in traffic, which means that during the analysis it is recommended to take into account the assessment for the entire period along with the latest information received on search traffic.

Conversion Paths

When considering all the different conversion paths, it is important to remember that conversion is often referred to as a gradual, not too fast process. For example, when users visit several pages at once. Not all pages are available in the same session – some of them may be in different sessions, on different devices/accounts. Therefore, it is important to keep track of all Conversion paths. After all, when deleting such pages and ignoring conversion paths, SEO problems arise.

Non-Search Traffic: Thorough Site Scanning

A quality site crawl allows you to determine the traffic received, which does not always come exclusively from search engines. For example, some pages on the site receive internal traffic (page linking). In addition, the option of receiving direct traffic (using bookmarks) is also considered. When deleting such pages there are problems with further promotion, about what “prompts” scanning the site after the procedures have been carried out.

Handling 404 and 410 status codes on your website: Google Webmaster Guidelines

When scanning a site on their own, many webmasters wonder how exactly Google processes deleted pages based on the status of a certain code. Today, there are two most common and frequently used options:

1. Status code 410 – the server sends a similar response because if the site was previously accessible at a specific URL, but is currently removed, it is considered unavailable. As a result, the server knows nothing about the new address of the page, its copy .
2. Status code 404 on the site – this error is even more commonly known as “Not Found”. This standard code indicates that the client is ready to work with the server, but the server was unable to find the data for the specified request.

Considering such statuses in different perspectives (medium and long term), we can conclude that for Google both codes are considered almost identical. After all, in both cases the addresses are automatically removed from the index.

But still a small difference, there is a difference and it is as follows: status code 410 sometimes appears a little faster compared to status code 404 on the site. As a result, when using code 410, you can slightly speed up the process of removing a page from the index. This option is often used in the case of hacker attacks, when the site owner wants to get rid of pages with a virus as soon as possible so that users and the search engine do not associate them with a specific site.

Quick and Proper Page Deletion: Key Takeaways

Before you start the process of deleting one or several pages at once, you should weigh all the pros and cons. It is important to understand whether deletion is really necessary and what methods should be used. It is necessary to refer to Google algorithms so that after deleting pages or individual content, the site continues to be successfully indexed. Therefore, you should not delete pages unless there is an urgent need for this. If deletion cannot be avoided, then it is recommended to do this through a 410 server response.