Removing dead (broken) links from Google search results

I occasionally do a site search for Blogger Sentral to check whether my new entries are properly indexed by Google. How do I do a site search? Easy, you can do it too, just type this in Google search box.

site:yourblogurl

Google will search your blog and then display all your blog or site indexed pages.

Last week I noticed a two dead/broken links showed up in the search results page. They are linked to posts I’ve already deleted.

I clicked on them, and this came out. So they are  indeed dead links.

page does not exist

I reckoned I have to remove this search results from Google SERP (search engine result pages), else it will frustrate my potential readers if they were to click on the links. But how do I do that? Okay… as always I answer my own questions here…

It’s like this:

  1. Go to Google webpage removal request tool page and sign in to your Google account.
    Update: There is a new URL removal tool, with roughly a similar interface. It can be accessed via Webmaster Tools > YOUR SITE > Google Index > Remove URLs.
  2. Click "Create a New Removal Request" button.  webpage removal tool
  3. Enter the URL of the page you want to remove. To prevent mistakes I do this by copying the link from Google search result itself, and paste it into the text box. 
  4. Tick the“The page returns a 404/410…” checkbox and click Submit Request button.
    google remove url reason
  5. The URL you requested will be listed, with “Pending” status.                      google url removal status
  6. Google will take  a few days to do the work for you. After removal the status will change to “Removed”.  google url status removed
  7. Once “Removed”, you can do a site search again to confirm if the dead link was indeed removed from Google SERP.
  8. You can get back the removed url by clicking “Reinclude” button.
  9. Enjoy!

For more information on this you can go to How to remove content from Google search result page from Google Webmasters Help.

 

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19 comments to "Removing dead (broken) links from Google search results"

don william June 22, 2009 at 6:42 PM    

thanks for this info, prima

Greenlava June 22, 2009 at 9:02 PM    

You're welcome don. Do come back for more tips.

swamy June 23, 2009 at 3:23 PM    

Must need for every newbie in webdesign.
Thanks for article.

Greenlava June 23, 2009 at 9:43 PM    

You're welcome swamy.

Emily July 31, 2009 at 10:30 PM    

Thanks much for this. I have driving myself crazy trying to figure out how to get rid of dead links, and this is perfect.

Greenlava July 31, 2009 at 11:37 PM    

My pleasure Emily.

S U R I October 17, 2009 at 1:56 AM    

Thanks for your info..now i can sleep well because of the dead links are gone forever..hehe

dilfadzil October 27, 2009 at 9:45 PM    

thanks, finally i can remove those dead links...

Ayie August 18, 2010 at 12:12 AM    

Thanks bro...
This is my blog Blog-Ayie

Greenlava August 18, 2010 at 8:23 AM    

@A-Y-I-E
You're welcome

Chris July 15, 2011 at 5:10 PM    

What is the different between "Remove page form cache" , "remove page form search result and cache" and "Remove directory"?
I try to remove my blog achieve pages, then i sow this 2 options. Which one is better for remove blog achieve pages?

Greenlava July 20, 2011 at 10:53 AM    

@Chris
Opt for "remove page form search result and cache".

Rajib Kumar August 14, 2011 at 11:55 PM    

I have too many broken link in my blog. Going to remove them. Thanks for share.

Manaday Mavani November 25, 2012 at 3:55 PM    

Please let me know how to remove the archive urls like this - www.techbeats.co.in/2012_10_01_archive.html from google search as they are not dead links. I don't wish to keep appearing in the search results (site:www.techbeats.co.in). Thanks in advance.

Greenlava November 25, 2012 at 8:00 PM    

@Manaday Mavani
What you want to do is block the archive pages from being indexed by Google before removing it using this tool.
You can block them via Settings > Search preferences > Crawlers and Indexing > Custom Robots Header Tags, or you can use the old fashion way, here Blocking archives from search engines

Unknown December 17, 2012 at 2:33 AM    

Thanks a lot :)

Unknown December 17, 2012 at 2:34 AM    

Thank you verymuch, it was very helpfull

droided.dev December 24, 2012 at 10:56 AM    

thks for a great tut...

veeresh June 20, 2013 at 5:06 PM    

thank you verymuch great help

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