Old Product Pages

[IOSC]

Hi

Issue:  I have old versions of a product page in the Google index for a product that I still carry.

Why: The URLs were changed when we updated this product page a few years ago. There are four different URLs for this product -- no duplicate content issues b/c we updated the product info, Title tags, etc. So I have a few pages indexed by Google for a particular product.  Including a current, up-to-date page.

The old pages don't get any traffic, but if I type in google search:

"product name" site:store.com then all of the versions of this page appear.

The old pages don't have any links to them, only one has any PA, and as I said they don't get any traffic, and the current page is around #8 in google for its keyword.

Question: Do these old pages need 301 redirects, should I ask google to remove the old URLs?  It seems like Google picks the right version of this page for this keyword query, is it possible that the existence of these other pages (that are not nearly as optimized for the keyword) drag it down a bit in the results?

Thanks in advance for any help

[Ties.com]

I would consider asking yourself what the value of those extra product pages are to the user?  If your primary, properly optimized page provides the best user experience then I would definitely 301 redirect the old URL's.

It's very likely that although those extra product pages are in the index they don't actually get traffic b/c they never turn up in the SERPs unless you are performing an advanced site: search.

Redirect the traffic via 301, don't worry about telling Google anything, they will remove the old URL's once they read the 301.  If you have any external followed links to the old pages you may want to reach out to the webmasters to request they link to the new page before you do the 301.

I highly doubt these old pages are dragging down your results for your properly optimized page but if they aren't providing any value or getting traffic then your time is better spent optimizing elsewhere.

Best!

[EEE3]

I would add 301 redirects as a best practice even if they don't have any juice to pass on to the new links. Just make sure they are being redirected to a similar relevant page or a page that makes sense.

Also, the way you're searching is not going to be how a consumer searches, so to see if these older pages are currently hindering your keyword strategy (I'm assuming you might be worried that two pages would be jockeying for one term?), perform a search as your customer would using the keyword only.

If you see these old pages in the search results and they're ranking higher than your newly optimized pages (which would better serve the customer), then you might have an issue only as it relates to conversion and bounce rate.

I would strongly recommend you 301 the old pages.