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Pages appearing inccorectly in Google search.

Hello,

My website is fairly new, so firstly, I know it will likely take anywhere between 4 days to 4 weeks or more rank and see results. I've inserted my Google analytics/webmaster tracking link to each page, so I believe they are starting to rank. For example, I type in the site URL into Google search, and I can see a few pages appear.

My issue is these questions:

1.I'm seeing old pages appear that were deleted. They do go to a 404-page error when opened, but I'm wondering if those pages will eventually disappear from the search results?

2. My original homepage needed to be re-created, so I had made a copy of it, re-created the look of it, then renamed the page title. I created the page as a "sample" page to show i.e 'Home Page (mock)' as the title. Once I finished recreating this new copied homepage, I decided that I wanted it to be my main home page and go with this new look. So, I edited the page title by taking away the word 'mock', now the page title is back to it's original title 'Home page'. Now, even days later, the old page title still appears in the search results. Of course, I don't want the word 'mock' in my homepage title when it appears in the search results. Will this eventually change as Google crawls my site, or is this title permanent in the search engines?

I hope I explained my concerns clearly. Looking forward to your support.

- Matt

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Hey @MattR!

1. It'll take time for deleted pages to be removed from Google's cache. I'd recommend setting up a 301 redirect to both speed that along, and give a better experience for people who click a link: http://hc.weebly.com/hc/en-us/articles/201723883-How-to-301-Redirect-an-Old-Page-to-a-New-Weebly-Pag...

2. That should eventually update once Google crawls your site again. It's tough to know when that will happen, but it should do it on its own.

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When a request is put in for you to delete old PDF files, do you just make the file invisible to us but not actually delete it? The reason I ask is that you removed several PDF files for us a month or so ago, but they still appear in Google search and are accessible - indicating they have not be deleted at all.

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Hi @chrisbowyer2

When you request to delete a PDF file, we will delete it right away, however the link may still show in google until they realize that link was removed. You can speed up the processes by requesting Google remove this URL from their search engine, here is a guide on how to do that. 

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1663419?hl=en

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Understand that, but the PDF files are still viewable/downloadable. If they were deleted, they would not be viewable/downloadable and Google would get a 404 Not Found for each and eventually remove them from its index.

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Hi @chrisbowyer2,

Sounds like you're viewing a cached version on your computer. If they were deleted they would indeed show a 404 page. Can you send the URL to the PDF file and I will check to see if I can see it from my end? Also try clearing your cache and cookies until all time, https://refreshyourcache.com 

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Hi @chrisbowyer2,

I'm able to see these PDF's as well on my end. This means that these were not properly deleted. What was the ticket number you requested these to be deleted please? 

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The original ticket number was 5971647. However, for some inane reason was told that as an administrator editor I did not have the authority, so I logged in as the owner and followed up with ticket: 5991839.

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Hi @chrisbowyer2,

Thanks for that info. Very sorry about this. Looks like the agent who tried to delete these didn't complete it correctly. The actual files are located under another account that starts with matthew.faint@. which is why when they tried to delete them, they did not delete. 

Does this account sound familiar? If so would you be able to have them, or if you have access to this account, login and submit another request to delete these files? 

Sorry for any inconveniences this may have caused you! 

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I have popped Mat an email requesting him to do this for us. Mat previously managed enagadinetavern.com.au in his account and then transferred it to the new account he set up for us. Hopefully, he will respond.

However, with all respect, this is actually an issue with your system. I was recently asked what I thought of Weebly and responded, well, simple compared to WordPress, Joomla and Wix which is just plain terrible, but a bit clunky in a few areas, especially the fact that a support request needs lodging to delete PDF files. The response from the other developer was, "That's crazy ....".

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Mat promptly responded, put in a support request and the pages have now been deleted. Mind you, what a rigmarole.

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