Redoing a site - 404 redirect or 301 redirect
-
I'm redoing a website, should i 404 the old pages, or 301 redirect to the main page? what is better? (around 100 pages)
-
Hi Felix,
If there is going to be a relevant, equivalent page on the new site, by all means a 301 redirect is best. If the old content is really not going to have a parallel page on the new site, then a 404 would be fine. Just keep in mind that 404s can frustrate users who are trying to access your site. It would be best to create a friendly, customized and humanized 404 error page if you intend on allowing old pages to 404. Even if 404s arent in the plan, you're bound to have some eventually so I'd strongly suggest creating a custom 404 page anyway.
I agree with cardiganMedia's comment about using 301 redirects for any pages that have built up any page rank or inbound links. Check them in OSE and make sure you preserve the authority the old site had by making sure to 301 redirect high authority pages to their equivalents on the new site.
Good luck! I hope these are helpful suggestions.
Dana
-
If the site ranks well and there's any way to preserve the present URL structure, that would be your best bet. If that's not possible, 301 the old URLs to the new applicable pages.
You can do this via .htaccess like this:
301 redirect /old-permalink-here http://new-full-url-goes-here
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
-
302 redirections warnings
Hi there, the SEOMOZ crawler has detected some warinings related to the 302 temporary redirections. Example: http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/tks-camp/alojamiento/ redirects to www.tarifakeitesurfcamp.com/error-404 I have made some 301 redirections, located at the end of the final (inicially) and later I just moved them to the top of the file. The htaccess file content is: redirect 301 http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/tks-camp/escuela/ http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/gisela-pulido-escuela/
On-Page Optimization | | juanmiguelcr
redirect 301 http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/tks-camp/cursos-kite/ http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/gisela-pulido/
redirect 301 http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/tks-camp/curso-idiomas/ http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/campamento-bilingue-para-ninos/
redirect 301 http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/tks-camp/programa-de-actividades/ http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/kitesurf-para-ninos/
redirect 301 http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/tks-camp/alojamiento/ http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/campamento-de-kitesurf/
redirect 301 http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/tks-camp/la-empresa-2/ http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/kitesurf-para-ninos-tarifa/ BEGIN ASIGNACIÓN DE TIEMPO DE CACHÉ A IMÁGNES, ARCHIVOS JSS, CSS <ifmodule mod_expires.c="">#activa la generacion de cabecera Expires
ExpiresActive On
#establece el tiempo de cache por defecto
ExpiresDefault A604800
<filesmatch ".(jpg|gif|png|css|ico|js)$"="">#suma 1 dia a la hora de acceso del usuario ExpiresDefault "access plus 7 day"</filesmatch></ifmodule> END ASIGNACIÓN DE TIEMPO DE CACHÉ A IMÁGNES, ARCHIVOS JSS, CSS BEGIN W3TC Browser Cache <ifmodule mod_deflate.c=""><ifmodule mod_headers.c="">Header append Vary User-Agent env=!dont-vary</ifmodule>
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css text/x-component application/x-javascript application/javascript text/javascript text/x-js text/html text/richtext image/svg+xml text/plain text/xsd text/xsl text/xml image/x-icon application/json
<ifmodule mod_mime.c=""># DEFLATE by extension
AddOutputFilter DEFLATE js css htm html xml</ifmodule></ifmodule> END W3TC Browser Cache BEGIN W3TC Page Cache core <ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Encoding} gzip
RewriteRule .* - [E=W3TC_ENC:_gzip]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !=POST
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} =""
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !(comment_author|wp-postpass|w3tc_logged_out|wordpress_logged_in|wptouch_switch_toggle) [NC]
RewriteCond "%{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/wp-content/cache/page_enhanced/%{HTTP_HOST}/%{REQUEST_URI}/_index.html%{ENV:W3TC_ENC}" -f
RewriteRule .* "/wp-content/cache/page_enhanced/%{HTTP_HOST}/%{REQUEST_URI}/_index.html%{ENV:W3TC_ENC}" [L]</ifmodule> END W3TC Page Cache core BEGIN WordPress <ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]</ifmodule> END WordPress What's wrong? What could happen is I maintain these 302 redirections? Thanks!0 -
301 redirects, efficiency and dynamic URLs
Hi, I have 2 301 redirect questions. Question 1: I have am working with a designer on the redesign of a website that currently has over 5,000 indexed pages. The majority of these are dynamic URLs from the Stone Locator database. (see below) http://www.domain.com/storelocator.php?zipcode=91784&page=12 How can I efficiently deal with these pages from an SEO perspective when developing the new site? Is there a way to do a bulk 301 redirect to a store locator page, for instance? Question 2: If a rel=canonical tag has been established on a page (www....), is it necessary to add 301 redirects to all of the other versions on: the home page (domain.com , domain.com/index.html, domain.com/index.html, etc.) all other pages with those same extensions ? Thank you for your help! Erin
On-Page Optimization | | HiddenPeak0 -
301 Problem
Hi Guys, Just have a small problem with a htaccess 301 redirect. I would like to 301: www.old-domain.com & old-domain.com to www.new-domain.com. The site is exactly the same with the same directory structure so i would also like all the subpages to work. Eg: www.old-domain.com/folder/page & old-domain.com/folder/page to www.new-domain.com/folder/page Many thanks
On-Page Optimization | | MSSTORAGE0 -
E-Commerce Site - Duplicate Content
We run an e-commerce site with about 250,000 SKUs. Certain items, such as a micro USB car charger, will be applicable to several different phones. Example: http://www.wirelessemporium.com/p-165787-samsung-galaxy-proclaim-illusion-sch-i110-heavy-duty-car-charger.asp http://www.wirelessemporium.com/p-165856-sony-xperia-ion-4g-lte-att-heavy-duty-car-charger.asp As one can imagine with so many items, unique content for each item description page can be a challenge. What would be the best way to address this on a large scale?
On-Page Optimization | | eugeneku0 -
What is this site all about?
Can anyone here tell me what this site is all about?... I really need to know, i have a blog.
On-Page Optimization | | Wales33030 -
Improve Site SEO
Hey Guys I was wondering if you could give me advice to improving my SEO. I have used all the tools on this site and have improved it a lot already, but wondering if there is any glaring issues, that I could fix now www.treelifedesigns.com
On-Page Optimization | | treelifedesigns0 -
Internal link structure for large site
I am working on a very large directory site which is undergoing a complete redesign. I am considering the internal link structure from first principles. When a site has over 100,000 pages, how do you ensure that each page is linked to from somewhere so that there are no orphans? Trying to get my head around the structure makes my brain hurt. Any tips?
On-Page Optimization | | mascotmike0 -
Site-wide keyword density
A colleague of mine was saying that he has been able to get top ranking for a high traffic term by using variations of that head term on multiple pages that are associated with the main page. For example,he would optimize a landing page for the high traffic word "Construction." He would then build pages under this landing page that are optimized for variations of this word: "Construction facts," "Industrial Construction Companies," "Construction Resource Allocator" etc. His theory is that the subpages add credibility with spiders that the root page is the best for that root page. This doesn't seem like it would work, but I'm curious as to what other people think.
On-Page Optimization | | EricVallee340