301 for a deleted page?
-
Which is in your opinion the best "301 practice" to notify Google that a web page does not exists anymore?
For example:
...
---CATEGORY PAGE
-------SUBCATEGORY PAGE
------------ PRODUCT PAGE 1
------------ PRODUCT PAGE 2
------------ PRODUCT PAGE 3
...If you delete “PRODUCT PAGE 2” does it make sense to create in the .htaccess a 301 redirect towards the “SUBCATEGORY”?
Do you have others tested methods to deal with this issue?
Thank you in advance for sharing your opinions and ideas.
YESdesign
-
You don't need a 301 redirect for this - unless you've got some really strong links pointed to it. If it's search you're worried about, just do as Mark suggests above and remove the page from your sitemap. If you have a link to that page that's actually sending traffic, then you could 301 it to the most relevant page that does exist.
It's worth putting in the effort to create a customised 404 page with some links to other content, that way if people do end up on your 404 page you've got a much better chance of keeping them on the site.
-
As mark suggested there's no need to 301 all pages that you remove from your website.
One situation I can think of where you should do this is if the page has many external links to it. Setting up a 301 redirect will then mean that the inbound link juice will not be wasted, plus any potential customers don't end up on a 404 page.
-
YESdesign- Simple and easy. Just update your sitemap and remove the page.
Hope this helps.
Mark
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
-
I want to move some pages of my website to a folder and nav menu in those pages should only show inner page links, will it hurt SEO?
Hi, My website has a few SaaS products, to make my website simple i want to move my website some pages to its specific folder structure , so eg website.com/product1/features
Technical SEO | | webbeemoz
website.com/product1/pricing
website.com/product1/information and same for product2 and so on, the website.com/product1/.. menu will only show the links of product1 and only one link to homepage (possibly in footer). Please share your opinion will it be a good idea, from UI perspective it will be simple , but i am not sure about SEO perspective, please help thanks0 -
An informational product page AND a shop page (for same brand)
Hi all, This is my first foray into e-commerce SEO. I'm working with a new client who sells upscale eBikes online. Since his products are expensive, he wants to have informational pages about the brands he sells eg. www.example.com/brand. However these brands are also category pages for his online shop eg. www.example.com/shop/brand I'm worried about keyword cannibalization and adding an extra step/click to get to the shop (right now the navigational menu takes you to the information page and from there you have to click to get to the shop) I'm pretty sure it would make more sense to have ONE killer shopping page that includes all the brand information but I want to be 100% sure before I advise him to take this big step. Thoughts?
Technical SEO | | MouthyPR1 -
How to Delete a Page on the Web?
Google reports and I have confirmed that the following old page is presenting on the Web. http://www.audiobooksonline.com/The_Great_American_Baseball_Box_Greatest_Moments_from_the_Last_80_Years_original_audio_collection_compact_discs.html This page hasn't been in our site's directory for some time and is no longer needed by us. What is the best way to fix this Google reported crawl error?
Technical SEO | | lbohen0 -
Does google like Category pages or pages with lots of Products on them?
We are having an issue with getting Google to rank the page we want. To have this page http://www.jakewilson.com/c/52/-/346/Cruiser-Motorcycle-Tires rank for the key word Cruiser Motorcycle Tires; however, this page http://www.jakewilson.com/t/52/-/343/752/Cruiser-Motorcycle-Tires is ranking instead and it has less links and page authority according to site explorer and it is farther down in the hierarchy. I am wondering if google just likes pages that have actual products on them instead of a page leading to the page with all the products. Thoughts?
Technical SEO | | DoRM0 -
Page Not Found Help!
Hi, I recently (about 2 months ago) moved a blog from a separate domain name over to my eCommerce site to help with marketing. http://www.moondoggieinc.com/blog. I seem to have gotten it all to work right, but I'm getting tons of 404 errors and they all have " in them for example: http://www.moondoggieinc.com/blog/”http://www.moondoggieinc.com/custom_dog_tanks_and_tees.php” I'm not sure how this happened of how to fix it, but there are about 250 pages like this. I know how to redirect them all with a 301 in htaccess, but Im not sure if that's the appropriate course to fix this or if that's just putting a patch on something that's causing a more major issue. Or do i just need to write 250 301 redirects? Thanks! Kristy O
Technical SEO | | KristyO0 -
Linking from and to pages
My website, www.kamperen-bij-de-boer.com, tells people what campingssites can be found in The Netherlands for recreational purposes. In order for a campingsite to be mentioned on our website we ask them to place a link to our website (either using a text link or image link) and then we make a page for that campsite on our website with in the end a link to ther website, e.g. http://www.kamperen-bij-de-boer.com/Minicamping-In-t-Oldambt.html -> they in return link back to us. Since this comes natural will this or won't this be penalized by Google and so on for linkfarming. At this moment we have about 600 camping sites on our website alone linking to us (not all of them) and we are linking to them. Since this can be explained as link trading which is not as good for your ranking as one-way-linking what should be wise? Should i include a nofollow? I already have many links from other sites linking to mine without having to link back, is there anything else i can do with linking to ensure better ranking?
Technical SEO | | JarnoNijzing0 -
Remove Deleted (but indexed) Pages Through Webmaster Tools?
I run a blog/directory site. Recently, I changed directory software and, as a result, Google is showing 404 Not Found crawling errors for about 750 non-existent pages. I've had some suggest that I should implement a 301 redirect, but can't see the wisdom in this as the pages are obscure, unlikely to appear in search and they've been deleted. Is the best course to simply manually enter each 404 error page in to the Remove Page option in Webmaster Tools? Will entering deleted pages into the Removal area hurt other healthy pages on my site?
Technical SEO | | JSOC0