What do you do with old web pages?
-
I have a wordpress blog that I've made a ton of changes to. I have about a dozen pages on it that have old information or I no longer have a use for. In retrospect, I probably should have used the old pages for new content instead of building new pages. Should I just leave them on the site with no links to them, should I mark them as noindex, or should I delete them? I think some of the old pages could be completing with my new pages for ranking due to similar content.
Website is: http://continuumweddings.com if you'd like to check out my site.
Thanks,
Melissa
-
Not sure what you meant by " wont be wasting any content,"
A 301 redirect will only redirect incomming links to the new page, the content value of the old page or any inherent authority it had will not be passed.
It will no lnger exist, only the incomming links will exist and can be redirected
-
Thanks! I actually have a Pinterest buttom in the menu and link to it at the end of all my blog entries. I'm obsessed with Pinterest but I'm still trying to figure out the best way to use it for my business.
-
Casey is correct.
If you already have written new pages, there's no need to update the old ones. Redirect them 301 to the most consistent new page you have.
Anyway, in the future, try to consider to use one of tips I suggested in one my last comment in the SEOmoz blog: you can read them here > http://www.seomoz.org/blog/new-links-old-pages-whiteboard-friday#jtc165757
Psst... I've seen the site and, sincerely, it is one of the best sites about wedding photography I've seen so far. Just a suggestion: being the photos so important both in the site and the blog, I warmly suggest you to add the Pinterest button to your site and to partecipate in Pinterest as I truly believe that it is the social network perfect for a business like yours.
-
I second that! It would have been best to update the old pages.
-
The best thing to do would be to update those pages with new & fresh content. But if you have already made new pages which are out ranking and competing with your old pages you can do a 301 redirect from the old pages to the new pages. This way you wont be wasting any content, and any authority the old pages had will be passed along to the new pages.
Since your using WordPress you can use Simple 301 Redirects Plugin to make it easier.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Updated page not ranking.
Hi Guys. Bit flummoxed by this. I've recently updated our Mid year diaries page to be this years mid year products. i.e) Diaries that go from 2015-16 not 2014-15. Last year we rank really well for the search term 'mid year diaries 14-15'. All i've done is update the page to be focused on 2015-16 diaries, but when i type in 'mid year diaries 15-16' it's no where to be seen in the SERP. Even our home page is ranking higher! I'm really puzzled about this, nothings changed apart from the year! The only reason I can think of is that Google is reading the file name of the images which are related to lasts years products? For example the file name might say mid year diary 2014-15. Do you think this is what's effecting us? Very puzzling 😕 I've submitted it through Webmaster tool btw 🙂 Isaac.
On-Page Optimization | | isaac6630 -
What to do about pages I have deleted?
I have been working through the dead links on my page and recreating the page with new content for those pages that it still makes sense to have on the site. But I have a few that were just changes of the title, spelling mistakes or other ways of saying the same thing In other words I created a page called "areas of the UK we cover" but decided to change it to "areas covered" However, I must have created links to this page and now it is a dead link with a page authority of 19 I think it would be spammy to have two pages, one called "areas covered" and the other called "areas of the UK we cover. It's not a disallow in Robots.txt because the page does not exist Please note I do not have access to the header to add code for a 301 redirect. I'm still using webs.com but not for new sites. I also have a page called singing telegrams london, that I changed from singagrams london. These are two words for the same thing but they are two very different keywords would it be ok to recreate this page and create content for singagrams london. Help is much appreciated
On-Page Optimization | | singingtelegramsuk0 -
Duplicate Page Content
Hi, I am new to the MOZ Pro community. I got the below message for many of my pages. We have a video site so all content in the page except the video link would be different. How can i handle such pages. Can we place adsense AD's on these pages? Duplicate Page Content Code and content on this page looks similar or identical to code and content on other pages on your site. Search engines may not know which pages are best to include in their index and rankings. Common fixes for this issue include 301 redirects, using the rel=canonical tag, and using the Parameter handling tool in Google Webmaster Central. For more information on duplicate content, visit http://moz.com/learn/seo/duplicate-content. Please help me to know how to handle this.. Regards
On-Page Optimization | | Nettv0 -
Google picking up old pages
I recently redesigned a site that had all the keywords it was ranking for going to the home page. Now I have specific pages for each of these keywords but I'm seeing the home page (not the page that, if I do an on page optimization by hand in MOZ gives me an A rating) showing up in the auto reports (assuming pages Google sees for these keywords related to the url) as F's. They're all pointing to the home page. I've redirected the old index.html home page to the new but I suspect the reason is actually these pages (were) ranking for these terms (though none too well - all but one were not in the top 50 and one was 45) because these rankings are all dropping as well. I'm at a loss, with the site replaced, as to how to correct this and tell Google these keyword phrases all have their own pages now. I've dug through this forum and the only applicable answer I can see would be to add these phases to the home page (where they all rank for now) with anchored links to their new (A rated by Moz for these terms when I hand enter them) singular pages? Or is it just a waiting game?
On-Page Optimization | | adworksofboca0 -
How do you fix on page SEO ?
I have been trying to push my foundation website in organic search results for competitive keywords , i have been not been so consistent in raking our website in top search results of Google. can some one recommend the guidelines and activities which can really push my websites to Google first page. More Info: about our foundation We are the worlds largest school meal run ngo in the world feeding over 1.3 million school children in India Wesite url www.akshayapatra.org
On-Page Optimization | | AkshayaPatra0 -
Page title
So if we have a main category page on our site (mines an ecommerce site), do we go for more than that main keyword phrase for that category of products, or is it better to just keep it by itself, and not utilize the 65-70 characters available?
On-Page Optimization | | azguy0 -
Page Cache And Index
If you are browsing a site, what is the best way or programs to use to see if the page has been indexed and cached? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | gregster10000 -
How SEOMOZ manage to have same pagerank on all pages?
I was just wondering how SEOMOZ manage to have same pagerank on all pages? Even on profile pages.
On-Page Optimization | | DiamondJewelryEmpire0