Old pages - should I remove them from serps?
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Hi guys,
I need an advice from you, a recommendation.
I have some old LPs from old campaigns, around 70 pages indexed on Google, campaigns that are not available anymore. I have removed them from my DB, but they still remained on server so Google still sees them as URLs on my site, witch I totally agree. What should I do with this pages?
Should I remove them completely? (url removal tool) or use rel=canonical?
How will this affect my domain authority and rankings?
This pages doesn't bring traffic any more, maybe a view now and then, but overall this pages don't bring traffic.
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Since the campaigns are no longer available, I assume that these pages are no longer useful to the visitor. In which case, just put a note on the landing page that says "This offer is no longer available, but you might be interested in ...." In this case, the URLs remain in Google's index.
Alternatively, you can remove the pages from the server and 301-redirect each URL to your current campaign(s) if that seems more appropriate for the user. Because of the redirects, Google will eventually remove the URLs from their index.
In terms of SEO, the goal is not to lose any link equity coming from backlinks to those landing pages. If you simply use the URL removal tool, you'll lose any value from the backlinks. As Chris says, the canonical tag is relevant to duplicate content and not this type of situation.
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Completely agree with Chris.
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Landing pages
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LPs??
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Ask yourself "are they helpful for the user" if the answer is yes you should keep them, if no then remove them. Even if that theoretical user only comes for a visit rarely its still helpful to keep them about.
Canonical is only helpful if the content is the same if not its not the best option.
You may loose some authority if there are links pointing toward them but a 301 to a relevant resource may help avoid loosing this, you can check this in OSE etc. though.
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