New CMS system - 100,000 old urls - use robots.txt to block?
-
Hello.
My website has recently switched to a new CMS system.
Over the last 10 years or so, we've used 3 different CMS systems on our current domain. As expected, this has resulted in lots of urls.
Up until this most recent iteration, we were unable to 301 redirect or use any page-level indexation techniques like rel 'canonical'
Using SEOmoz's tools and GWMT, I've been able to locate and redirect all pertinent, page-rank bearing, "older" urls to their new counterparts..however, according to Google Webmaster tools 'Not Found' report, there are literally over 100,000 additional urls out there it's trying to find.
My question is, is there an advantage to using robots.txt to stop search engines from looking for some of these older directories? Currently, we allow everything - only using page level robots tags to disallow where necessary.
Thanks!
-
Great stuff..thanks again for your advice..much appreciated!
-
It can be really tough to gauge the impact - it depends on how suddenly the 404s popped up, how many you're seeing (webmaster tools, for Google and Bing, is probably the best place to check) and how that number compares to your overall index. In most cases, it's a temporary problem and the engines will sort it out and de-index the 404'ed pages.
I'd just make sure that all of these 404s are intentional and none are valuable pages or occurring because of issues with the new CMS itself. It's easy to overlook something when you're talking about 100K pages, and it could be more than just a big chunk of 404s.
-
Thanks for the advice! The previous website did have a robots.txt file with a few wild cards declared. A lot of the urls I'm seeing are NOT indexed anymore and haven't been for many years.
So, I think the 'stop the bleeding' method will work, and I'll just have to proceed with investigating and applying 301s as necessary.
Any idea what kind of an impact this is having on our rankings? I submitted a valid sitemap, crawl paths are good, and major 301s are in place. We've been hit particularly hard in Bing.
Thanks!
-
I've honestly had mixed luck with using Robots.txt to block pages that have already been indexed. It tends to be unreliable at a large scale (good for prevention, poor for cures). I endorsed @Optimize, though, because if Robots.txt is your only option, it can help "stop the bleeding". Sometimes, you use the best you have.
It's a bit trickier with 404s ("Not Found"). Technically, there's nothing wrong with having 404s (and it's a very valid signal for SEO), but if you create 100,000 all at once, that can sometimes give raise red flags with Google. Some kind of mass-removal may prevent problems from Google crawling thousands of not founds all at once.
If these pages are isolated in a folder, then you can use Google Webmaster Tools to remove the entire folder (after you block it). This is MUCH faster than Robots.txt alone, but you need to make sure everything in the folder can be dumped out of the index.
-
Absolutely. Not founds and no content are a concern. This will help your ranking....
-
Thanks a lot! I should have been a little more specific..but, my exact question would be, if I move the crawlers' attention away from these 'Not Found' pages, will that benefit the indexation of the now valid pages? Are the 'Not Found's' really a concern? Will this help my indexation and/or ranking?
Thanks!
-
Loaded question without knowing exactly what you are doing.....but let me offer this advice. Stop the bleeding with robots.txt. This is the easiest way to quickly resolve that many "not found".
Then you can slowly pick away at the issue and figure out if some of the "not founds" really have content and it is sending them to the wrong area....
On a recent project we had over 200,000 additional url's "not found". We stopped the bleeding and then slowly over the course of a month, spending a couple hours a week, found another 5,000 pages of content that we redirected correctly and removed the robots....
Good luck.
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
-
Use of subfolders for my casino directory
Been trying to find an answer to this for some time, so I hope someone can lend me a hand.. I've started building out my casino website Nerdybet, which will list regulated gaming vendors within each US state. A part of the idea is to create a high level web directory of legal betting sites. Now, say I want to list all legal casinos within a specific US state. What's the most search engine friendly way to build out the hierarchy? To clarify, this will be the main casino directory page: https://www.nerdybet.com/gambling-sites-directory Based on that, I can now pick either: a) Nerdybet.com/gambling-sites-directory/stateX
On-Page Optimization | | llevy
b)Nerdybet.com/stateX Which method would you say is best? And why so? Thank you.1 -
Using h2 for category on ecommerce website
Hi, I am working on an ecommerce site and the main category - lets call them car widgets - is using a h1 at the top of the page which is great. There are 4 sub categories on the page - lets call one of them red widget. The only content on the page is the sub category name and an image. Should the sub category red widget use a h2? Thanks S
On-Page Optimization | | bedynamic0 -
Home page keyword in url
I have been looking into SEO for a few weeks now trying to perfect a homepage. Going through various sources on MOZ, and other examples out there on the internet, I keep seeing that you should have your keyword in the URL of the page. The homepage is the page most people want to rank the highest in google searches, however, you cannot put the keyword in the URL as most home page URLs are simply /. Should I actually make the home like this: www.example.com/key-word-example? I would imagine this would not be the normal for many users and would seem like it's not the home page.
On-Page Optimization | | Matthew_smart0 -
Multi Keyword URL Ranking at Number 1
Here is part of a URL that takes the local number 1 spot for "implant dentist glasgow" [website] /implant-dentistry-glasgow-scotland/implant-dentistry-glasgow-scotland.html The first /implant-dentistry-glasgow-scotland/ directory or page is protected and presumably just exists for ranking reasons. I am tempted to copy that URL on a client's implant page to compete for the keyword (I believe I have better content). Given that it works well for the other site, can you think of any reason that would that be a bad idea? Thanks very much.
On-Page Optimization | | neilmac0 -
Keeping SEO benefit of an old URL by changing content
We have a blog written in Oct 2012 that accounts for 30-40% of our traffic (174K pageviews per year/80% bounce rate). We are considering updating the content but are concerned that it will fall off the search engine's map if the content is updated to include information that is not exactly the same, but relevant. The URL would be the same and the original blog content would be shortened with a link to the full blog. The new content would include other FDA products under investigation. Here is the blog: http://myadvocates.com/blog/fda-issues-warning-about-so-called-brain-supplement-prevagen
On-Page Optimization | | jgodwin0 -
Short URL's vs Optimised URL's
Howdy Mozzers! What are your thoughts on short URL's vs Optimised URL's. For example if a website currently sells wood furniture and wants to target the keyword "Wood Furniture For Sale", which URL would be preferable: Short URL: www.domain.com/wood-furniture Optimised URL: www.domain.com/wood-furniture-for-sale The website also uses facet navigation and selected attributes are added in a fixed order sequence after the category. For example if Cane is selected as wood type: Short URL: www.domain.com/wood-furniture/Cane Optimised URL: www.domain.com/wood-furniture-for-sale/Cane Which one do you prefer (between the short URL and optimised URL) and why? Cheers! MozAddict
On-Page Optimization | | MozAddict0 -
Wordpress categories tags and robots.txt
I am relatively new at this and see a variety of people that seem to disagree on if you should block google from indexing category and tag pages through robot.txt or no-follow because of google viewing it as duplicate content. I tryst this communities answers over the web at large obviosly, so what do you all think? Thanks, Steven
On-Page Optimization | | sfmatthews0 -
How should I structure my product URLs?
How should I structure my product URLs for the best SEO results? Lets say my product is "American Apparel 2001". Would it be better to run the URL together or use a "-" between each word. Here are two ideas I had, but feel free to suggest others. realthread.com/products/americanapparel2001 or realthread.com/products/american-apparel-2001 Thanks for the help! Dru
On-Page Optimization | | drudalton0