Best practices for temporary articles
-
Hello,
I would like to have expert inputs about the best way to manage temporary content?
In my case, I've a page (ex : mydomain.com/agenda) where I have listing of temporary article, with a lifetime of 1 month to 6 months for some of them.
My articles also have a specific url like for ex : mydomain.com/agenda/12-02-2011/thenameofmyarticle/
As you can guess, I got hundreds of 404
I'm already using canonical tag, should I use a in the listing page? I'm a bit lost here..
-
Thanks you Egol
-
thanks Richard.
I'm going to try this.
-
Thanks Aran!
-
{script to test page URL}
$location = "http://www.YourSite.com/";
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: {$location}");
exit;
}
-
We have temporary content and evergreen content.
When a page of temporary content is created it is filed in a folder according to its "expiration date". On that date the folder is 301 redirected to an appropriate destination. However, before the redirect is done we run analytics on the folder to see if any files are pulling traffic from SERPs or links from other websites. We then try to create evergreen content on the same topic that will capture that traffic and redirect the specific files to the new evergreen content.
-
It seems so unnatural to want to actually remove content when we spend so long striving to create awesome content!
-
You can use the meta robots tags as you mentioned in your question, this will prevent search engines indexing the pages, unfortunately we need to tackle the human side of the issue,if anyone links to the article, then eventually the link will result in a 404 page.
There is nothing wrong with a 404 page, they serve an imporant purpose. Since your articles are not around very long and not being indexed by search engines I see no reason to simply leave the 404 in place.
Ensure you have a custom 404 which is an imformative and helpful resource rather than a simple 404 Page not found message. use the 404 to direct the visitor to a category level page which is related to the topic of the article. Offer a simple list of links to various parts of the site that may be of interest.
Check out the SEOmoz articles
www.seomoz.org/blog/personalizing-your-404-error-pages
www.seomoz.org/blog/are-404-pages-always-bad-for-seo
Hope this helps.
-
I agree with Aran, setup an archive system that keeps the articles under the same URL but does not show them live on the website.
Alternatively you could setup a dumping "archive" folder where you drop all old articles in and use this link as your rel canonical link
-
Hello Arcanis,
Yes we have a destination URL for these contents, I just don't know how I can manage it when it disappears...
-
Hello Aran,
Thanks for your answers!
Unfortunately no, since the content is very "dated" (ex : 3 days music festival, etc.), we don't keep archive of this kind of content.
-
If you are using canonical tag, what is the context for that tag? do you already have a destination URL for these temporary articles?
-
Would it be possible to 'Archive' articles after the 1-6month period ?
Archive could just be a database flag that keeps the articles from appearing in Article index thus keeping the same url, but not clogging up main site with hundreds of links to expired articles?
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
-
What server issues might cause temporary and repeated Soft 404/500 Errors that appear to be functioning correctly when checked later from Google Webmaster Tools?
We are experiencing unknown server issues (we think) which are causing Soft 404/500 errors at unpredictable times on 2 websites. When we check on the pages, they’re fine but still show errors in Moz/Search Console. What are some measures we can take to protect from this or figure out what is causing this? Example URL for Soft 404 Error: https://www.advancedtraveltherapy.com/jobs/any/occupational-therapist/any/ Example URL for 500 Error: https://www.advancedtraveltherapy.com/job-detail/ms/physical-therapist/87529740/ Example URL for Soft 404 Error: https://www.advancedtravelnursing.com/search/searchresults.php?jobState=CA&tempType=g&specialties= Example URL for 500 Error: https://www.advancedtravelnursing.com/job/ma/registered-nurse/emergency-room/87108662/
Technical SEO | | StaffingRobot0 -
Homepage Not Ranking in Google - How long do old (not current) bad SEO practices exert influence?
I'm trying to get to the bottom of a problem I have with the Google ranking for mauiactivities.com - it's far below what I would hope for. My research so far has uncovered the following, and any advice on where to go from here would be appreciated. _Edit:_No problems with Bing or Yahoo - the site is #1 for primary key word 'maui activities' 1. Running a site:http://www.mauiactivities.com search in Google reveals that the homepage doesn't rank. At all. I looked through the 17 pages of results and can't spot it. Edit: I have now, after fresh checks after submitting the homepage through Search Console, found it at #1 - still, the following applies ... 2. I've found that the domain (before it was purchased by my client in 2011) had some bad inbound links, specifically from scubamaui.com (no longer active). The links where white, on a white background. This web archive snapshot will reveal all. 3. Those bad links were 'cleaned up' (i.e. they don't show in the web archive) from 2014, and as mentioned above, the website is now 'down'. 4. Search Console doesn't have a manual penalty. 5. When I search for 'tropical divers maui' in Google I find www.mauiactivities.com is the 4th result. To me, this indicates a current relationship with the dead site (Tropical Divers Maui). No other term comes close to ranking to high for the homepage. So, to summarise - can the old, dead Tropical Divers Maui website still be affecting the Google ranking, and what would you suggest I do next?
Technical SEO | | jsherwin0 -
What's the best way to pass link juice to a page on another domain?
I'm working with a non-profit, and their donation form software forces them to host their donation pages on a different domain. I want to attempt to get their donation page to appear in their sitelinks in Google (under the main website's entry), but it seems like the organization's donation forms are at a disadvantage because they're not actually hosted on that site. I know that no matter what I do, there's no way to "force" a sitelink to appear the way I want it, but... I was trying to think if there's a way I can work around this. Do you think 1) creating a url like orgname.org/donate and having that be a 301 redirect to the donation form, and 2) using the /donate redirect all over the site (instead of linking directly to the form) would help? Are there alternatives other folks recommend?
Technical SEO | | clefevre0 -
Best URL format for pagination
We're currently changing the URL format of our website search, we have been discussing a lot and cannot decide the past way to pass the pagination parameter for SEO. We narrowed down to the options. www.website.com/apples/p2 - www.website.com/apples?page=2 - www.website.com/apples/page/2 What would give us best ranking returns? What do you think?
Technical SEO | | HelpSaude0 -
Best TLD for china
In China there are 2 commonly used tlds .cn and .com.cn. We own both versions for a new domain. Does anyone know if there is research done which one is the best TLD "in the eyes" of the search engines Baidu and Google? Or maybe there is a methodology to select the best? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Paul-G0 -
What is the best way to fix legacy overly-nested URLs?
Hi everyone, Due to some really poor decisions I made back when I started my site several years ago, I'm lumbered with several hundred pages that have overly-nested URLs. For example: /theme-parks/uk-theme-parks/alton-towers/attractions/enterprise I'd prefer these to feature at most three layers of nesting, for example: /reviews/alton-towers/enterprise Is there a good approach for achieving this, or is it best just to accept the legacy URLs as an unfixable problem, and make sure that future content follows the new structure? I can easily knock together a script to update the aliases for the existing content, but I'm concerned about having hundreds of 301 redirects (could this be achieved with a single regular express in .htaccess, for example?). Any guidance appreciated. Thanks, Nick
Technical SEO | | ThemeParkTourist0 -
What is the best way to optimize a page for a magazine
Hi i have a serious problem with a website that i am building http://www.cheapflightsgatwick.com/ with reference to letting the search engines know what the magazine is about. I am building a holiday magazine which will focus on holiday news, cheap deals and holiday reviews. I am wanting the home page to feature for the following keywords holiday news, holiday magazine, holiday ideas, best holiday deals, but the problem i have is, i have tried putting an introduction on the home page but it looks out of place, so what is the best way for me to let google know about what the site is about and to get it ranking well in the search engines any help and advice would be great
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Are article sites a good way to generate traffic and links
I read a lot that article sites are a great way to generate links and traffic but i would like to hear from people on here to see about their experience with article sites. I have tried article sites and i have to be honest that most of them are no follow links and have also not generate any traffic. I have written over 30 articles for free article sites with no traffic coming from them and this has been done over a eight month period can anyone recommend any good article sites that can produce traffic and also ones that produce do follow If you feel i am wasting my time putting articles on free sites then please do tell me
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860