Remove bulk URLs from Google Search Console

[penguin123]

Hello,

I have the followings URLs which are indexed in GSC :
https://mysite.com/thispath/beach (page 1)
https://mysite.com/thispath/beach?start=20 (page 2)
https://mysite.com/thispath/beach?start=40 (page 3)
https://mysite.com/thispath/beach?start=60 (page 4)
and so on...
Each page will show up a list of 20 beach photos.

I do have others like :
https://mysite.com/thispath/sunset (page 1)
https://mysite.com/thispath/sunset?start=20 (page 2)
https://mysite.com/thispath/sunset?start=40 (page 3)
https://mysite.com/thispath/sunset?start=60 (page 4)

I have consolidated all pages so that all photos will now show on https://mysite.com/thispath/beach, https://mysite.com/thispath/sunset (same URLs which used to be page 1 only) using lazyload - I do think it's a good idea for better SEO, right ?

Can I use some wild cards to remove all URLs containing : ?start=20, ?start=40, ?start=60 etc... ?

I only have the option to use prefix in 'Removals' > "Temporary Removals'

[Neel Patel]

"prefix in 'Removals' > "Temporary Removals" is a great option! it will remove bulk URLs quickly without doing much.

[penguin123]

So I will need to specify :
https://mysite.com/thispath/beach?
https://mysite.com/thispath/sunset?

and some 50+ other URLs...

I was thinking there would be a better way.

Example using suffixes such as ?start=20, ?start=40 would have been much easier for me.

[Lishmalinyjames]

Open Chrome.
Visit Github to download the Bulk URL Removal Chrome extension.
Visit Google Search Consoles > Google Index > Remove URLs.
Enable the Chrome Extension (Menu > More Tools > Extensions.
Refresh Search Console "Remove URLs" page.
Select your choice from the dropdown.
Upload your list of URLs.

[Brackwom]

Use this tool, to Remove the Bulk URLs from Google Search Console.
This extension can remove a list of URLs from Google via Google's search console formerly known as Google's Webmaster tools with one click. You don't need to copy and paste individual URLs manually and click on the remove button one at a time. Instead, create a CSV file with all your to-be-removed URLs in it, "upload it", and click on remove.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/webmaster-tools-bulk-url/pmnpibilljafelnghknefahibdnfeece

[np.carzspa]

Yes, consolidating all the beach photos onto the main URL (https://mysite.com/thispath/beach) using lazyload is a good idea for SEO. It improves the user experience by reducing the need to load multiple pages and also helps to consolidate the authority of your main URL.

Regarding removing the URLs containing "?start=20", "?start=40", "?start=60", etc., you can use wildcards in the "Temporary Removals" section of Google Search Console. However, it's important to note that this will temporarily remove those URLs from search results, but they may still be crawled and indexed by search engines. If you want to permanently remove them, you should consider using 301 redirects or canonical tags to point them to the main URL.

Using wildcards in the "Temporary Removals" section of Google Search Console can be helpful in temporarily removing multiple URLs that have a common pattern. For example, if you want to remove all URLs with "?start=" followed by any number, you can use the wildcard symbol "*" to represent any character or number.

In this case, you can enter the following URL pattern in the "Temporary Removals" section:

https://mysite.com/thispath/beach?start=*

This will match any URL that starts with "https://mysite.com/thispath/beach?start=" and is followed by any combination of characters or numbers. By doing this, you can effectively remove all URLs containing "?start=" followed by any value.

In Google Search Console, the "Temporary Removals" tool does not support wildcards or pattern matching for URL removals. It only allows you to temporarily remove specific URLs.

If you want to permanently remove URLs with "?start=" parameters from search results, you have a few options:

1. Redirect: You can set up 301 redirects from the URLs containing "?start=" parameters to the corresponding main URLs (e.g., redirecting "https://mysite.com/thispath/beach?start=20" to "https://mysite.com/thispath/beach"). This tells search engines that the content has permanently moved to the main URL.

2. Canonical tags: Use canonical tags on the URLs containing "?start=" parameters to specify the preferred version (main URL) of the content. This helps search engines understand that the main URL should be considered the canonical version and indexed.

3. Robots.txt: You can disallow crawling of the URLs containing "?start=" parameters in your site's robots.txt file. This can prevent search engines from accessing and indexing those URLs.

[Lishmalinyjames]

Open Chrome.
Visit Github to download the Bulk URL Removal Chrome extension.
Visit Google Search Consoles > Google Index > Remove URLs.
Enable the Chrome Extension (Menu > More Tools > Extensions.
Refresh Search Console "Remove URLs" page.
Select your choice from the dropdown.
Upload your list of URLs.