liuyi

What to do with deleted product pages

by @liuyi (150), 1 year ago

I found a lot of deleted product pages in Google Search Console, what should I do? there are thousands

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binayjha
by @binayjha (4569), 1 year ago

Remove the cached pages manually using the Google Search Console.

liuyi
by @liuyi (150), 1 year ago

Thank you for your method. For these pages that no longer exist, will direct deletion have a greater impact on my website?

binayjha
by @binayjha (4569), 1 year ago

There will not be any negative impact on the website. Even there will be positive impact once you request the validation after fixing.

liuyi
by @liuyi (150), 1 year ago

This will be a long term task, I am trying to use this feature, but I am limited, there is a limit on the number of daily deletions

binayjha
by @binayjha (4569), 1 year ago

Explore the various options provided there. Whole category or a folder' cache can be deleted with single assignment by using the feature, remove all URLs starts with...

ms
by @ms (3850), 1 year ago

I'd say, it depends...

Are those pages old products that used to be for sale and are not available anymore? If so, chances are you are still receiving traffic on these products - people still search for them. Deleting those pages, you are getting rid of all that traffic that you could potentially convert offering new models etc.

Different scenario are products that should not be published - errors, mistakes, something that doesn't and shouldn't exist. Those pages are normally subject to removal, however, it shouldn't happen really. When you publish something by mistake and delete it in minutes/hours, Google has very-low to no chance to crawl the page.

So what kind of product pages are we talking here?

liuyi
by @liuyi (150), 1 year ago

It was an old product that was sold before, and it is no longer for sale, so I deleted those product pages, but the google search console still shows

jaap
by @jaap (1662), 1 year ago

Just deleting products is a tricky business. If they have backlinks or were indexed I always prefer a 301. Or to a related product, otherwise to the homepage.

ms
by @ms (3850), 1 year ago

You're missing out on the potential rankings and traffic your old product pages had.

As @jaap pointed out in his reply above, make that traffic and pages work for you. Either offer new(er) product/model or redirect that old product page to the old products category page, but never cut off your potential customers. It's not a great business decision. Those are people you're trying to acquire at the same time, so it makes no sense, right?

Other than that, those pages likely earned some backlinks over time.

wilkinson
by @wilkinson (125), 10 months ago

If you have discovered that there are a lot of deleted product pages showing up in Google Search Console, it's important to take immediate action to prevent any negative impact on your website's SEO. Here are some steps you can take:

Determine the cause: The first step is to figure out why so many pages have been deleted. Did you delete them intentionally or was there a technical issue that caused them to disappear? Understanding the cause will help you prevent similar issues from occurring in the future. Remove URLs: Use the "Remove URLs" tool in Google Search Console to request the removal of the deleted product pages from Google's index. You can either remove individual pages or use the "Remove directory" option to remove a group of pages. Redirect pages: If the deleted pages were popular or had inbound links, consider redirecting them to relevant pages on your website. This will help preserve their value and prevent any negative impact on your website's SEO. Check internal links: Ensure that there are no internal links pointing to the deleted pages. If there are, update them to point to relevant pages on your website. Update sitemap: Remove the deleted pages from your website's sitemap or generate a new sitemap without those pages. Monitor: Keep an eye on your website's search engine rankings and traffic to ensure that the deleted pages have not negatively impacted your website's performance. Learn from the experience: Analyze what went wrong and take steps to prevent similar issues from occurring in the future. It's important to have a solid process in place for managing and updating your website's content. Dealing with a large number of deleted product pages can be a time-consuming and challenging task. If you need assistance, consider reaching out to an experienced SEO professional or agency to help you manage the process more efficiently.

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