How I Helped a Client Remove Spam URLs from Google Search

A while back, a client came to me with a frustrating problem: thousands of spammy URLs—about gambling, lottery, and other random topics—were showing up in their Google Search Console (GSC). These weren’t real pages, yet Google had indexed them.

Now, I’m no SEO expert, but I do have a decent understanding of how Google indexing works. I knew that simply “removing” these URLs from GSC wasn’t the solution—they needed to be dealt with at the source.

Step 1: Identifying the Problem

The first thing I checked was whether these spam URLs actually existed on the site. When I visited them, they all returned a 404 Not Found, which was a good sign. It meant the pages weren’t live. But here’s the catch—Google still had them in its index.

Step 2: Using 410 Gone to Speed Up Deindexing

While a 404 tells Google that a page isn’t there, a 410 Gone tells Google it’s permanently removed—which means it gets deindexed faster.

Since the client’s website was running on nginx, I updated the server configuration to make sure any request for these spam URLs would return a 410 Gone response:

location ^~ /doc/ {
    return 410;
}

location ^~ /bet/ {
    return 410;
}

location ~* (lottery|blackjack|casino|rummy|satta|matka) {
    return 410;
}

This made sure that any request to a URL containing lottery, blackjack, rummy, etc., would instantly return a 410.

Step 3: Helping Google Forget These URLs

To speed things up, I also:
✅ Used Google’s URL Removal Tool (in GSC > Indexing > Removals) to hide spam URLs while Google reprocessed them.
✅ Submitted a fresh sitemap with only valid pages, so Google focused on crawling the right content.
✅ Monitored GSC’s Coverage Report to track which spam URLs were disappearing.

Step 4: The Results

Within a few weeks, I saw a drop in the number of spam URLs indexed. The website’s real pages performed better, and the client was happy to see the junk disappearing from Google’s search results.

Final Thoughts

This experience reinforced something important: spam URLs won’t go away on their own, but the right approach can speed things up. A 410 response, combined with smart use of Google Search Console, can clean up indexed spam efficiently.

If you’re dealing with something similar, don’t panic. Just make sure your server is returning the right status codes, help Google find the correct URLs, and give it some time to work.