What to do with old web pages after a re skin?
-
Buongiorno from foggy & wet wetherby UK
Having launched a website there is a cluster of old redundant pages which i dont want to appear in the serach engines problem is they deliver search traffic.
Would it be best to 301 redirect them? Or delete them & 404 Not found alert, I'm really not sure whats best
Any insights welcome
-
Also to add.... the old urls have stacks of repeated title tags
Now if i redirect i'm guessing I'll still have to correct the repeated title tags or will webmaster tools still nag me about repeated title tags.
I have a feeling if i redirect the old urls I'll also have to undo the repeated title tags. Would be great if someone could confirm this would be the case so i can order some strong coffee for the grim task ahead!
-
Nightwing(I like the name),
I definitely like the idea of using 301's as Tom said there is no point in losing the traffic that those pages are bringing in.
-
Hi there
If they are bringing in traffic, whether it's from search or direct, then I think it's a good idea to 301 redirect them to the closest corresponding page that you can. This way it doesn't interrupt the user's journey so much.
If you really don't want to redirect the users, you could instead block the pages in a robots.txt file or (better yet IMO) add the following code in the tag of the pages:
This will instruct Google to stop indexing the page, thus stopping that flow of search traffic. However, users would still be able to access the page if they found the URL, and so if you didn't want them to see the old reskin, again a 301 redirect might be in order.
Worth mentioning though that 404 errors are not a bad thing and Google does expect them to be part and parcel of the course - so it's by no means a "bad" option if you go down this route.
Hope this helps!
-
Hi nightwing,
in such a case I would always recommend a 301 redirect to avoid any loss of linkjuice, DA or whatever you prefer to name it. We`ve have made good experiences with that in the past...
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
-
Wrong page ranking on SERP, above more relevant page
Often I will see the wrong page, something less relevant to a particular search, appear higher on the SERP than a more relevant page. Why does this happen and how can it be remedied? I found this Moz article, has anything been written on this topic more recently. Thanks! https://moz.com/blog/wrong-page-ranking-in-the-results-6-common-causes-5-solutions
On-Page Optimization | | NicheSocial0 -
Implementing Schema.org on a web page
Hi all, As we know, implementing Schema doesn't change the look & feel of a web page for the users. So here is my Question.. Could we implement Schema markup on the web pages only for Bots (but not visible to users in a Source code) so that page load time doesn't increase?
On-Page Optimization | | vivekrathore0 -
Old web pages with link juice - still live, but not in nav tree
We have monthly newsletters posted on our website. We want to keep only 2 years (2013-2014) posted - http://www.nuxeo.com/en/about/newsletter. All of the newsletters from 2011 and 2012 have good link juice, though. They are still live on the site - http://www.nuxeo.com/en/about/newsletter/december-2012 - but they are not listed on the main Newsletter page, so you would need the direct URL to find it. Will Google punish us for this? Is this a good way to keep our link juice? Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | nuxeo0 -
Home page or landing page?
Hello, I want to ask a question related to that - Should we put keywords in the home page title if we wish to position another landing page better for particular keywords? I have read in one website about SEO that it's good the main keywords of your website to be positioned in homepage title also. f.e. Let's say we have website about web-design and our company is named Company Ltd. The title of the home page is "Company Ltd. - Web design, SEO, etc" We have also another inner page named "Web design | Company Ltd.". So should we leave the first page name only "Company Ltd." and the landing page's name "Web design | Company Ltd." . I don't know if they both have the same keyword in their title they won't compete with each other.
On-Page Optimization | | HrishikeshKarov0 -
301 to Intermediate Page then Rel=Canonical from Intermediate to target page
Hi I'm working on an eCommerce site and don't have direct access to the CMS. I had requested developers to provide me a facilty to 301 via htaccess however this is working slight differently. I need guidance from experts whether it's okay or not: Old Page: example.com/old Target New Page: example.com/new After Implementing the redirect, It redirects to an intermediate page or in other words, The same target URL with a question mark added: example.com/new? (notice the question mark in the new URL) This intermediate page has a canonical tag for the exact target URL. So, if I 301 redirect example.com/old to example.com/new? (Intermediate page) and If the intermediate page example.com/new? has a canonical tag for the exact target URL (example.com/new), Will I be able to pass the link juice and authority of old page to the new page?
On-Page Optimization | | Ankkesh0 -
On Page Optimization Report
Does this tool also guard against an instance of over-optimization or keyword-spamming?
On-Page Optimization | | webfeatus0 -
We have 5 postions on page 2 in a google search, but none on page 1\. How can we fix this?
For one of our most important key phrases we have 5 listings on page 2 but none on page 1. We are an ecommerce company, the key phrase we're trying for is a Top Level Category name for us, so the 5 links we have on googles second page for the key phrase (in order) are the appropriate top level category page, the sites home page and than three sub categories of that top level category. So while that all makes sense, can't we convince google to concentrate all that link power/juice into just the top level category page? Hopefully bumping it to first page rank? The 5 ranks are 11-15
On-Page Optimization | | absoauto0 -
3 keywords optomize for home page. Should I create page with thoses keywords or leave it like this?
My online store home page, Furnace Filters Canada has 3 keywords with good ranking in google.ca keywords: ''furnace filters canada'' rank #1 position in google.ca keywords: ''furnace filters'' and ''furnace filter'' are on 5 or 6th position of page 1 in google.ca Those keywords are bringing most of the traffic to our site. To achieve this ranking, I had to use the On-Page Keyword Optimization, tool from seoMoz Questions: It is possible for me to create a page with the URL: https://www.furnacefilterscanada.com/Furnace-Filters or https://www.furnacefilterscanada.com/Furnace-Filter Can this improve my ranking with keywords like, ''furnace filters'' and ''furnace filter''? Is this a waist of time? If I decide to create a new page for optimization with, do I have to create one for singular and another one for plural? Creating a new page also mean removing, '' Furnace Filter'' in the home page title, until the new pages are index, I'm afraid to loss that 5th position in Google. Should I leave the home page title like it is now, '' Furnace Filter - Furnace Filters Canada - Online Shopping Store NOTE: we only do business in Canada, that is why Google.ca is more important to us Thank you, Jean Nichols
On-Page Optimization | | BigBlaze2050