Removing URLs from Google index

[rvolk75]

Hey guys,
I switched over from Point2 template to REW site almost 2 months ago. When I'm in Webmaster Tools, I see 177 errors under "Not Found". There are bunch of URLs in Google index that are still from the old template. Those pages don't exist anymore.

When I'm in Webmaster tools, there is a section called "Remove URLs". You can add a URL to that list and Google will not crawl the link. Should I add all 177 URLs to that list so the errors can disappear?

Is this the right way? Is there a better way?

I just don't want to see any errors in Google Webmaster Tools.

Thanks

[Micheal Pannell Realtor]

they will come off with time. You just have to wait on them

[rvolk75]

That's what I thought. After the first time Google crawled my site after I went live, I had more than 600 URLs that couldn't be found. In about 2 weeks, went down to about 170 and have been there for the past 4 weeks or so. The number is not changing.

I'll continue waiting, but if I used that tool, would it help/hurt the process?

[Bigtoe]

Is it possible to 301 redirect them to existing pages?

[rvolk75]

Well, probably, but I don't need those pages anymore. They're links to listings that no longer exist. I just want them out of my index.

I'm sure having 177 errors doesn't help with my rankings.

[ericbramlett]

Download the links to those pages, and spend a couple of hours writing the .htaccess so that they all redirect to your index page. It will get rid of the errors.

[Markz]

Your right it wont help your rankings, I have noticed over time that errors in webmasters have a negative effect on rankings.

Well, probably, but I don't need those pages anymore. They're links to listings that no longer exist. I just want them out of my index.

I'm sure having 177 errors doesn't help with my rankings.

[rvolk75]

Eric,
I think I understand what you're saying, but I'm not sure how it's done. I have a REW template, so how would I change the .htaccess file? And what do you mean by "Download the links to those pages"? I'm not too clear on that.

Could you please provide more information on how it's done?

Thanks in advance.