Google indexing urls redirect 301

Question

Hello,

Let say my site has the following URLs indexed in Google:

/test/1
/test/2
/test/3

For some reasons, I want those same pages to have the following URLs:

/test/abc
/test/def
/test/ghi

I noticed that even if I use a 301 redirect from /test/1 to /test/abc, the URL /test/1 stays in the Google index for a while after the robot hits the redirect and discovers the change.

Is it normal that it takes few weeks for the old URLs to disappear from the search engine index or is there a better way to let him know about the changes.

Should I use the URL removal tool ?

Will a new sitemap in the Google webmaster tools help to get rid of the old URLs ?

Help me see inside the Google black box :)

Answer 1

Answering your questions:

• Yes it's normal for this process to take a few weeks, this is nothing to worry about.
• The URL removal tool is only for URLs that no longer exist, you can't use it for URLs that now return a 301 (see: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=59819&hl=en)
• An XML sitemap is mainly for telling Google about new pages and pages that have changed recently, so I don't think it will help you here

In short, the index will update naturally, you just need to let Google do its thing.