How do I redirect a page that no longer exists?
-
I changed the name of a blog article I wrote and the original name is giving a 404 error. I am not sure why it isn't being directed like the other articles I renamed to improve SEO.
Since the webpage no longer exists, I don't know how to redirect it.
I use Wordpress and Thesis.
Thanks!
-
I see. Yes the 301s are just within my own site. Whew that makes me feel better.
Ok since I said I was using Wordpress in the OP, I figured CMS meant something else. Good to know.
I will check out that link, thanks!
-
If you used Simple URLs then your CMS is Wordpress (Content Management System).
I didn't mean to scare you though. 301s on your own site are fine. Don't worry about them as long as they are coming FROM pages that you don't want to pages that you DO want. The way you have them working on your site are perfect. That's what they are for. I have thousands of them on one particular site that I work on. Have you had a chance to read through SEOmoz's SEO 101 (beginners guide to seo) yet? It is a great starting point.
But, let me just clarify the 301 thing. If an off site link is coming into a non existent page and you 301 that page, you'll lose some of the link juice coming in from that off site. So it will be better to change the link from the offsite at the source. 301s on your own site are fine though. For instance, if you 301 the non www to the www version of your site, that is a 301. That's obviously good for users and good for search engines.
Sorry for the confusion.
-
Thanks for the info. I used the plugin Simple URLs. I hope I did it right. I am very green.
I googled CMS but I still can't tell you what CMS I am using. Sorry.
Regarding using 301s, yes I am probably using several. Not hundreds or anything but probably tens. This is because I am updating permalinks on the advice of my SEOmoz reports. Then the old permalink automatically redirects to the new one.
How can I get rid of the 301 redirects so I don't lose link juice?
-
Firstly, 404s are a natural part of the web and don't think it will kill your site. It won't. When you get a 404 error iit can mean that something is pointing to that page or that Google has seen the page before but now it's not there. Google wants to make sure that that page is completely gone and not an accident to the 404. Technically if you have nothing pointing to the old post (no external links coming in and no internal links either, including sitemaps) then it will go away after a few crawls. If you do however have off-page links coming into that page a 301 would definitely be a good idea (best idea would be to get those sources to change the link to the new page url but that's not always possible. Remember, when you 301 you do loose some link juice)
If you are on Wordpress there are some great plugins to do this like the 301 redirect option on Wordpress SEO by Yoast
If you need to do this manually then let us know and we'll give you the actual code to do it in your .htaccess
-
what CMS are you using, usually there are plugins to help you do this. Another alternative is to change the URL back to the old URL but the name stays as the new one - this is a common thing that can happen. But it all depends on your CMS - search its name and 301 redirect, you will get there
-
Just create a redirect in your htaccess file with the old URL to the new URL. There are multiple plugins that support this feature on WordPress such as "simple redirect" etc.
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
-
Over Optimised Magento Pages
We are working on a clients Magento site and we've added new copy which has a decent keyword density which is in line with best practice. When we run it through Moz we are getting a Key Word Stuffing alert saying the page has 27 keywords, where we can only see about 11. This is the page https://www.greatbeanbags.com/bean-bag-cushions The client is pushing back saying the page must have already been optimised before as our new copy has triggered the stuffing alert. But my guess is the page was already stuffed but buy some Magento code we can't see. Any ideas? #magento #Keyworddensity
Content Development | | Marketing_Optimist0 -
Best practice for Wordpress /page/2/
I realize that it might be a minor point but it still bugs me. We have a blog with a number of posts. Content of the posts does not expire or age (in the rare case something changes, we do update the information in the posts). The wordpress blog is setup to display our latest posts and displays 15 posts at once. Since we have a lot of content, the older posts get pushed off the front page which is understandable and desirable behavior. However the pages that have older posts have names like "/page/2/", /page/3/, /page/4/ and so on. This does not look very SEO or user friendly to me. What do you think? Did you come up with something better then /page/ and then a number?
Content Development | | SirMax0 -
One Page Website Blog Content Question
Hi guys, I'm new to the art of SEO and am learning every day from all the fantastic content here, I have a question that I can't find an answer to, hope it doesn't stump you like it has me... I have a one page website (www.neilwilliamsvoiceover.com) that I need to put more content on for SEO purposes but needs to be kept as one page. I've set-up a blog via blogger, and have that on the website but it's in iframe, which I've now discovered is ignored by search engines. So, my question is, is there a way to pull my blog feed into the website and have it recognised by search engines as content for the website? Would I use an RSS feed or feed burner or something else completely?! Thanks for your time and help in advance.
Content Development | | BamMK0 -
Hit With Panda, How Should I block pages?
Hello! I believe Ive been hit with Panda, I have a large Ecommerce site with literally thousands of pages, but working on adding custom content daily. Should I block pages that have duplicated copy, that dynamically insert a product/artist/team name? Will this help with my huge ranking drop? If so after this has been done should I send a request reconsideration to google? Or will it just happen automatically? I believe this is a algo penalty and not manual, as I have not received any messages in my Webmaster. Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thank You!
Content Development | | TP_Marketing0 -
Is the Page Authority/Rank of my corporate site affected by my blog's PA/PR and vice versa?
If I host my blog on my corporate site (it is a wordpress blog) will the page authority and page rank of my site translate to the blog? And does this also go the other way around? My gut says this would make sense, and I think I have seen it in action with other corporate sites that host their wordpress blogs, but I want to be completely sure. Even better, if someone can explain to me how this works, that would be super helpful!
Content Development | | Kendi0 -
How to handle product pages with similar information
We have thousands of product pages with similar information but differentiating variables such as length/width. Example: http://www.savvyboater.com/store/p/2100-Cover-for-V-Hull-Fishing-Boat-with-Side-Console-O-B-14-X-74-.aspx http://www.savvyboater.com/store/p/2101-Cover-for-V-Hull-Fishing-Boat-with-Side-Console-O-B-15-X-76-.aspx http://www.savvyboater.com/store/p/2102-Cover-for-V-Hull-Fishing-Boat-with-Side-Console-O-B-16-X-92-.aspx http://www.savvyboater.com/store/p/2103-Cover-for-V-Hull-Fishing-Boat-with-Side-Console-O-B-17-X-92-.aspx We built individual products instead of grouped products because we recommend specific part numbers for specific make, model, year boats through our finder tool. These pages have recently started showing up in SEOmoz as duplicate content and we are looking for solutions to solve it. We have considered creating a "parent page" that lists all sizes and then using a rel canonical on each individual page to tell google that the parent page is the preferred page. Any thoughts or other ideas on this?
Content Development | | ironpac0 -
Duplicate Page Content & Rel-Canonicals
The SEO Moz duplicate page content tool lists the following URL's as having duplicate content: http://www.savvyboater.com/1988-newer-8-tooth-15-hp-honda-outboard-props.aspx http://www.savvyboater.com/1988-newer-8-tooth-15-hp-honda-outboard-props.aspx?sort=PriceAsc&pi=2 The second URL is the price sorter/second page of the category and contains the following rel-canonical: | http://www.savvyboater.com/1988-newer-8-tooth-15-hp-honda-outboard-props.aspx"> Are we using the rel-canonical correctly in this case? If so, why does it continue to show up as duplicate content in our SEO Moz report? There are over 1,000 URLS listed in the report with the exact same issue. |
Content Development | | ironpac0 -
How many blog posts per page are enough?
Any thoughts on how many blog posts per page are enough for SEO? Assume about 800-900 words per post.
Content Development | | casper4340