How Long Does It Take For Google To Remove Dead Links?
When a page on your site becomes a “dead link” (i.e., it returns a 404 error because the page no longer exists), Google will eventually remove it from its index. However, the
time it takes for Google to remove a dead link can vary widely.
Here’s a typical scenario…
- Google’s bot, Googlebot, tries to crawl your page and gets a 404 error.
- Googlebot doesn’t immediately remove the page from the index upon encountering a 404. It assumes the error might be temporary (like during site maintenance).
- Googlebot will continue to visit the page periodically to check if it returns a 404 error.
- After a certain amount of time and repeated attempts, if the page consistently returns a 404, Google will conclude that it is permanently gone and will eventually remove it from its index.
This process can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on various factors like the frequency of Google’s crawl rate for your website.
You can use Google’s Removals tool in Google Search Console to expedite the process. This allows you to temporarily hide a page from Google’s search results for about six months, which can be helpful if you remove sensitive information and want it de-indexed quickly. For a more permanent solution, ensure your server returns a 410 HTTP status code (Gone) instead of a 404. Google treats 410s as more permanent and may de-index these URLs faster.
Setting up 301 redirects for deleted pages whenever possible is good practice, especially if those pages have backlinks or significant traffic. This helps preserve the user experience and retain any SEO value those pages might have had.
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