Is it OK to Delete a Page and Move Content to a Another Page without 301 re-direct

[khi5]

I have a page "A" that I want to completely delete and move the written content from A" to page "B". Since I am deleting "A" (not keeping page) is it OK to upload the content from "A" to page "B" and search engines will give "B" credit for the unique content? Or, since the content has already once been indexed on "A", "B" may struggle to get full credit for this new unique content, even though page "A" is deleted?

[Locutus]

I've tried this. I moved content from page 'A' to page 'B'.

I did not even delete page 'A', and google re-indexed both the updated pages correctly.

In webmaster tools, I submitted page B first, and then page A immediately after.

Note: There were a few scraper sites that were scraping the content in question.

Performing a 'site: <domainname.com><"string of text in quotations here">' in Google showed page B for the content first, above the scrapers. I know this is not a scientific way of determining if you are the owner of content, but it seems to me that Google still gave our site, and page B, the ownership of the content in question.</domainname.com>

[Gavo]

Totally fine to delete page A and put new content on page B. Google will have no problems with that even if is the exact same content.

Will page B get the same ranking results as page A? That is a question that depends on a lot of variables, the key one being have a lot of links gone to page A from other sites? I would use Moz's Open Site Explorer to check that one and see what links have in fact gone to page A.

In any case, if you're set on transferring to page B, a 301 redirect has alluded to would be a good move that wouldn't do any harm at very least, and offer some SEO to the new page otherwise.

[James77]

yes, I would certainly recommend 301'ing the link - or better could you just simply overwrite the old page (A) with the new page you are intending to create (B) - unless of course B already exists?

If you struggling with managing the 301, then I would first check if there are any external backlinks going to page A. If there are, then I would certainly try and find a way to 301. If not, then it will not effect things to much as there is no external link equity going to the page to loose.

A further option if you are unable to 301, and copying the content from page A to page B is to rel=canonical A to B, which should pass the link equity across in a similar way to a 301.

[EduardoRuiz]

I would definitely 301 re-direct to the new page, this way you'll make sure any links that were coming to page "A" are counted for your new page "B". After all, 301 is such a quick thing to do, it's worth it to be sure.