How do I remove old URLs from Google's index?

[brycek379]

Hello, I need advice. Recently, I've been changing URLs of my site pages, and now Google has added all the URLs, old and late, in the index. Is there a way to delete old URLs from the index loss-free?

 

[cfazio]

Hello, I need advice. Recently, I've been changing URLs of my site pages, and now Google has added all the URLs, old and late, in the index. Is there a way to delete old URLs from the index loss-free?

First off, did you 301 redirect the old url to the corresponding new urls? If you are doing proper 301 redirects this will take care of itself.

 

[Justin Mosebach]

Yeah, definitely create redirects first. Then, you can do it in Google Search Console: Removals Tool - Search Console Help (though I'd first try to manually "Request Indexing" for both the old and new URLs before doing the removal)

 

[brycek379]

First off, did you 301 redirect the old url to the corresponding new urls? If you are doing proper 301 redirects this will take care of itself.

I did, and it seems to be working strategy, thanks!

 

[Justin Mosebach]

Thanks for the update! I'd add to be really cautious about using the Removal Tool.

That tool will definitely delete the URL from the index, but I'd be concerned that the benefit doesn't outweigh the potential cost of using the GSC Removal Tool:

• Potential benefit includes: Google wouldn't think there's duplicate content... they'd definitely know which page to rank.
• Potential cost includes: The old URLs are still ranking and the new URLs likely won't rank as high until Google figures out the 1-to-1 relationship between the old URL and new URL.

 

[Justin Mosebach]

And I'd try using Google Search Console's "Change of Address Tool" too before using the URL Removal Tool.