Google Search engine result problem

[rluke]

Hello Experts I am having trouble with the Google search engine results showing a page that has been renamed. I may have a flaw in the way I edit my webpages.1. I name my pages index.html2. When I make a change, I do it offline.3. Before I upload the new page, I rename the index.html file on the server to indexv1.html or indexv2.html 4. I then upload a new index.html file.5. When I try a Google search, it shows results that include the old renamed files. (indexv1.html) I am only keeping the old renamed files on the server as a backup. I don't want them to be seen by anyone anymore.My Questions: What basic mistakes am I making? Should I be deleting the old files? Am I on the correct section of this forum? Thanks you in advance -Skywalker

[aspnetguy]

you need a robots.txt file. You can write rules in it to tell google what not to index

[rluke]

you need a robots.txt file. You can write rules in it to tell google what not to index

Can I put a robots.txt file in the root directory of each subdomain in my site?Are there other solutions? Thanks Skywalker

[Yahweh]

Hello Experts I am having trouble with the Google search engine results showing a page that has been renamed. I may have a flaw in the way I edit my webpages.1. I name my pages index.html2. When I make a change, I do it offline.3. Before I upload the new page, I rename the index.html file on the server to indexv1.html or indexv2.html 4. I then upload a new index.html file.5. When I try a Google search, it shows results that include the old renamed files. (indexv1.html) I am only keeping the old renamed files on the server as a backup. I don't want them to be seen by anyone anymore.My Questions: What basic mistakes am I making? Should I be deleting the old files? Am I on the correct section of this forum? Thanks you in advance -Skywalker

You're not expecting your page changes to be reflected on Google instantaneously do you? Depending on the popularity of your site, Google can reindex your site in a couple of days, or it might take a couple of weeks.And if you don't want anyone to see your backup pages, then delete them.

[rluke]

Thanks for the replies I wonder how many other mistakes I am making Skywalker

[croatiankid]

I would use a 301 redirect in your case, to redirect from the old pages to the new pages.