E-commerce Question
-
I have a bunch of pages that I want to remove from one of our ecommerce sites www.macdecals.com
I understand that it's recommended to check the backlinks of each of these pages to determine if they have any incoming links before removing them, to see if I should even bother doing a 301 or not. (We have a good 404 page)
What about checking if the pages have any social media interaction?
After removing these pages is it recommended to update and resubmit our sitemap.xml file to Google Webmaster Tools?
I feel like once Google Webmaster tools finds the 404s and we have resubmited a sitemap, we can mark all the issues at hand as fixed.
Thought? Are we on the right track?
-
Hey Jeff!
Was just going through some old questions I asked and realized I never gave credit for your answer!
Thanks again bud, cheers!
-
That makes sense... I didn't realize you were talking about top level categories; I thought it was more of a product page...
Post and let everyone know how it turns out...
-
Thank you
we've already checked for backlinks none of the pages have any. However some have social media shares.
We are taking out two of the top level categories and items within them. Therefore, we would have to 301 them back to the home page because we don't have the top level anymore, which I believe can raise a flag.
-
Bryan -
I just did a quick look at your site. You have a crazy amount of Google +1s.
Anyway, Google seems to have about 5,260 pages indexed, according to a quick search (see screenshot).
Google is most interested these days in creating an amazing user experience. I wouldn't worry about 100 pages, as a 301 is going to be a better quality signal to Google than 100 sudden 404 errors showing up on the page.
If you're really worried, though, and want to reduce the number, you could do a backlink check on the pages you're about to remove and see if anyone has linked in to those pages directly. 301 those, and then perhaps don't worry about the others?
-
Hi Jeff,
From my understanding a 301 should only be done if the page we are linking to is related to the page that we are eliminating. We have about 100 items that we plan on removing, our rankings are very good and we don't want to lose what we've earned.
My concern is if we do 100, 301 redirects, it might be signal to google that something funky is going on..
-
Bryan -
The best practice is to 301 those pages to a relevant top-level category page, so that Google doesn't see that links into the site from social media or other pages is broken.
You can simply let them be a 404, but that doesn't send the solid signal to Google that you're managing the pages on your site well.
Yes, once the pages are removed, I'd recommend re-generating the XML-based sitemap and resubmitting it to Google, so they don't look for those pages.
But 301s for those removed pages will eliminate any future issues with people who bookmark a page or link to it from another site.
Just my $0.02...
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
-
QUESTION! Does anyone have any information about using an API to create Google Posts?
We have a client that has over 150 locations. They are using a software to post to all of their accounts at once with an API for different platforms. We are wondering if there is anyway to do this to post to their Google My Business Page.
Social Media | | Brie.E.Anderson0 -
Question about understanding Google Ranking System
Hi, I have too many question that I need answer to understand Google ranking system. I have been analyzing different website in different niche, but puzzling to understand how Google rank actually. Some websites have good number of backlinks with good SEO metrics, but some low SEO profiled websiites outrank good sites. I am here with my first question. I am working for one client website who sell sex toys online. So we are optimizing keywords like sex toys, buy sex toys, sex shop, sex toy store and too many keywords to rank on google.ca. My client website is cupidboutique.com. We have some competitors that I want to mention below: 1. PinkCherry: This is one of our big competitor. They have 2 domain one is for US and one is for Canada. Both websites ranking well for different keywords. Basically .ca domain is more successful than .com domain. But I am surprise why Google consider the websites for rank. If you see, both websites are identical, that means both website have same product, same category structure, and the most important all products description are duplicate on each domain. On google webmaster guideline, google mention that if 2 domain have identical content, then Google ignore the duplicate one in ranking. But still both websites ranking for different search term. I compare the SEO metrics of our domain and their .ca domain, there is not big difference. Our websites also have good number of links, good PA/DA, even more good number of social sharing than them. But our rankings are not even comparable with them. They are ranking within 20-30th on Google for different product category keywords, but not our. 2. Hushcanada: This is another website ranking well, but I a surprise how? This website is ranking on very high competitive keyword with very fewer number of backlinks. Their PA/DA, number of backlinks, social sharing all metrics are very few. Their business also established recently that is 2013, which I found through archive.org, whereas our client business has been running since 2003-2004. As a Ecommerce business website their homepage is not showing any product , their catalog can be found under "shop online" page only. There are even some more websites ranking well with very low SEO metrics in this niche. If Google is not looking for these SEO staff, then what other staff Google looks to rank website? Hope I will get some favorable answer of my question.
Social Media | | moonheart0 -
Makeoverfor our Facebook page titles! question about open graph and Google
Hello, We have two Facebook pages for our company, one in English and one in Arabic. A few weeks ago we wanted to change the Facebook page titles but this option was not allowed for both pages. Now Facebook is giving us an option to change the title for both pages: We had a lengthy discussion regarding the best way to name our Facebook pages. Currently our Facebook pages titles are: For the one in English: "X" ( X - our brand name in English*) For the page in Arabic: "X - Arabic" ( X- our brand name in English*) We agreed to change the title for the page in English to: X - (The main 3 keywords in our brand's field in English) ( X - our brand name in English).* for the Arabic page we suggested to change the title to: X - (The main 3 keywords in our company field in Arabic)** ( X - our brand name in English).* **** We will translate the main 3 keywords to Arabic** We have a few questions: - How does the search work in Facebook? Does the open graph algorithm take into account the page's content and/or its title and description? - Is there any preferred way to name the Facebook pages? We were debating using the company's slogans versus the main keywords for our brand. ? Or should the title contain just the brand name? - What components of the Facebook page title and URL affect our page's visibility in Google for a search on our brand name? It's important to mention that Google currently does not show the Arabic page in the 1st page in Google. Thank you in advance for your help!
Social Media | | JonsonSwartz0 -
G+ places/local - Company Categories and Pages question
I have two questions about google places/local and Personal/Company Pages Regarding Local and the categories section. Should you be using strictly the predefined categories they have? or should you be creating your own? Also say you're a car repair shop for instance. If you should be creating your own such as 'truck repair' should the city be in there as well 'Truck Repair New York/New York Truck Repair(keyword or location first?)' When it comes to company and personal g+ places, i understand doing the rel author and its bennefits but what is the correct way about tagging this? For instance in Wordpress, Studiopress has a section in the profile for the user g+ profile that will rel author it, and Yaost SEO says 'if you have a business page, insert it here and link your personal page as a contributor to the business page' Should we be filling in both sections? or does this cause a conflict? Adding these items is very easy to do, but would rather do it right the first time then circle back and have to correct everything. Any feedback/input is appreciated. Thanks,
Social Media | | choiceenergy0 -
Google 'Author' tag question (Guest Blogging)
Hi, It seems like im seeing more and more about the Author tag, its now in Webmaster Tools and Google+. If your guest blogging, is it a good idea to include the Author link back to your Google+ account? If your Google+ account is also connected to your website and Google confirms they can see the connection does the Author links help with ranking when you push them back to the connected Google+ account?
Social Media | | activitysuper0 -
Facebook Advertising Noob Question
Hello Mozzers, I have a noob question for which I have not been able to find a clear answer on the internet. When a client asks you how much would I have to spend on FB ads to get 100,000 fans how do you go about making a "media plan". I can understand you can calculate clicks using your budget and CPC but fans? Also, ad impressions on Facebook? FB doesn't even give that metric anymore on its default ad dashboard where you have campaign reach, social reach, CTR etc. So if a client wants 1Million Facebook Ad Impressions (I know, I know), how do you tell them how much its going to cost them. In a nutshell, clients want to know how much they should be spending to get x number of fans and impressions and vice versa, how many fans and impressions will $XXX get them. So how does one go about making a media plan for Facebook advertising, what do you include in it and well, anything else that I should know? Thank you, Rishad.
Social Media | | AsadMemon0 -
Facebook Like Quick Question
What is best practice for the Facebook like button, when a user clicks on like on your webpage should this go to your facebook page our should it contain your website url? The reason being is that on my homepage it shows as 5 likes but when going to my facebook page it is only showing 1 like? So where are the other 4 likes going? Any ideas on what is going wrong or what I have set up wrong? The like box is on http://www.cheapfindergames.com/xbox360 My Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cheapfinder/129888913795351
Social Media | | ocelot0 -
Blog Contest Question
Hello, I'm planning a blog contest. I have the project plan outlined and the one missing factor is where to promote the blog contest to get the most people involved in the contest possible. What do you recommend in regards to publicizing the contest to bloggers?
Social Media | | AllergyBuyersClub0