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I did a complete URL rewriting of my site some three months ago, however Google still features many of the old URLs.

They're not dead links as they correctly redirect to the new URLs, but it sort of spoils part of the URL rewriting benefits.

Is that something to worry/care about or will they eventually die out naturally anyway and it's best to let them disappear ?

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It is best to let them disappear as long as your redirects are 301's. Google will in time see that they are 301(permanent) redirects and will switch over to the new URL. I have done this myself and you should see results within 2-4 weeks, if not faster.

If it has been more than a month and your old URLs are still showing up in Google's SERPs then you need to look into your redirects and make sure the headers are correct. You can use a free site service like, http://www.internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check/. I believe fiddler will also check it.

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  • Could you please explain what you mean with headers ? My redir commands look like that: RewriteRule ^index\.html$ index.php [L] – Argoron Jun 23 '11 at 20:05
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    @Argoron - TO make it a 301 do this: RewriteRule ^index\.html$ index.php [R=301,L] – JMC Jun 23 '11 at 20:50
  • @Argoron, The comment from @JMC is correct. It looks like that is your issue. You can check your header using a free service like, internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check. – Ben Hoffman Jun 24 '11 at 1:28
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Try also adding a canonical meta tag, this might help, along with making sure your redirects are 301's

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