How long for authority to transfer form an old page to a new page via a 301 redirect? (& Moz PA score update?)
-
Hi
How long aproximately does G take to pass authority via a 301 from an old page to its new replacement page ?
Does Moz Page Authority reflect this in its score once G has passed it ?
All Best
Dan -
I wouldn't get too hung up on the Moz timeline, since that's only correlated with what Google does, to build a broader model. If Google has crawled/cached the 404 and the page actually is no longer in the index, then that page should stop inheriting and passing link equity. It can get complicated, because sometimes 404s have inbound links and other issues tied to them that can confuse the crawlers. So, I'd say it's situational.
Moz (specifically, OSE) can help you determine what links still exist to those URLs, which really should guide whether you let them stay 404s or 301-redirect them to something relevant. The other aspect of the decision is just whether something relevant exists. If you clearly have built a page to replace the old one then 301-redirect it. If the old page is something that ceased to exist for a reason, then a 404 is probably fine unless that old page had a ton of inbound links. In that case, the 404 has essentially cut off those links.
The problem is that those inbound links are still out there, so it's not that the authority has ceased to exist. It's that you've basically cut the pipe through which the authority flows.
-
No I want to 301 a page that became a 404 after devs missed redirecting during site migration where urls changed. Moz saying a few of these 404 urls still have authority. I know should 301.anyway even if they don't but are they likely to still have authority according to G ? In other words how long aftr an old page/url with authority that becomes.a 404 retains it ?
-
Sorry, I'm a little confused - are you 301'ing to a 404? I'm not really sure I understand the situation.
-
thanks Dr Pete !
What i meant was how long aprox do you have to set up a 301 for an old page resolving in a 404 before it loses its page authority ?
If you leave it a month say will it have lost the PA or will it retain it so will still transfer the PA once you 301 it say 4 weeks or more since its became a 404 page?
Or is it more likely that Moz Analytics hasnt updated yet and still attributing the url with an authority score when in fact Google is likely to have dropped its authority since been a 404 for 4 weeks ?
cheers
dan
-
I think our data is getting refreshed every couple of weeks at this point, but I'm not sure if a 404 will drop a page from MozScape/OSE right away at that point. I suspect 301s may be updated more quickly, since a 404 could be a temporary issue. Once the target of a 301 gets passed the PA, the original page should lose it.
-
And how long does it take for the PA on an old page to 'expire' if hasnt been transferred ?
Say if devs have missed some pages in the migration (4 weeks ago) which are now resolving in a 404, which Moz Dashboard is still reporting as having PA.
Will that authority still transfer if set up a 301 4x weeks later ?
I know we should 301 anyway, to reduce 404's, but just interested in knowing if the pages old authority expires at any point (which i'm sure it must do eventually).
Thanks
Dan
-
great thanks Dr Pete !
-
It can vary quite a bit. The page has to be recrawled/recached, which can take anywhere from hours to weeks, depending on how much authority the page has. That's usually the big delay. After that, Google may on occasion delay passing authority, but we don't have proof of that (there are just cases where it seems like they do).
If it's just a handful of pages, re-fetch them through Google Webmaster Tools. It never hurts to kick the crawlers.
-
thanks Keri
any ideas though aprox how long G takes to update/pass authority of an old page to new one via a 301 ?
-
Moz Page Authority is a separate metric. Sadly, we have no pipeline from Google where they tell us exactly what they think of a site. We update our metrics about every month, so it may take a couple of months to see authority changed to a new page in Moz.
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
-
Moz & Xenu Link Sleuth unable to crawl a website (403 error)
It could be that I am missing something really obvious however we are getting the following error when we try to use the Moz tool on a client website. (I have read through a few posts on 403 errors but none that appear to be the same problem as this) Moz Result Title 403 : Error Meta Description 403 Forbidden Meta Robots_Not present/empty_ Meta Refresh_Not present/empty_ Xenu Link Sleuth Result Broken links, ordered by link: error code: 403 (forbidden request), linked from page(s): Thanks in advance!
Moz Pro | | ZaddleMarketing0 -
Missing Page Titles On The Comptetive Link Comparison Page
Hello, When I do a Link Analysis using the SEOmoz tools I have noticed that most of the pages listed on the Top Pages tab show [No Data] for page title. Any idea why that could be? The page source of those pages have one and only one <title>tag.</p> <p>Thanks!</p></title>
Moz Pro | | andersvin0 -
Domain and Page authority dropped on home page
My two strongest links did not show up in the latest Open Site Explorer run. Business.com and BOTW.com...Linking domains went from 21 to 15. Domain dropped 3 pts and Page authority dropped 3 pts I believe. Is there a function in SEOmoz.org that lets you track your domain scores over time? Thanks, Boo
Moz Pro | | Boodreaux0 -
How to Optimize a Home Page?
Can anyone advise on what is the best way to optimise the home page? Many websites I see include the target(focus) keywords from other pages on the home page. Is this self competition? "Avoid Keyword Self-Cannibalization- It's a best practice in SEO to target each keyword with a single page on your site" If an e-commerce website has 4 levels in the SEO architecture. Home Page, Brand Pages(Category), Range pages(sub-category) and individual product pages. It would seem that the main keywords would be within the category(brands) level of a website. However many websites I see include these on the home page as well. Could someone please clarify this? I do not recall seeing the report card saying Self-Cannibalization when these keywords(category level) are listed on the home page. However I could be wrong, Please could someone advise on what SEO MOZs recommendations are for best practise on optimizing a home page so that it does not compete with category pages, or other pages on the website. Thanks
Moz Pro | | WMA0 -
MOZ Crawler only crawling one page per campaign
We set up some new campaigns, and now for the last two weekly crawls, the crawler is only accessing one page per campaign. Any ideas why this is happening? PS - two weeks back we did "upgrade" the account. Could this have been an issue?
Moz Pro | | AllaO0 -
Domain authority decrease after open site explorer update. Reasons?
Hi! I just noticed a decrease on our domain authority and also the page authority of several of our pages on the SeoMoz toolbar. For instance, DA went from 34 to 29. I was scared and confused, so I went to check it on the opensite explorer and saw that it had been updated. I want to ask you guys if the same happened with your metrics or is it just us. Because the strange thing about it is that we have been doing some good optimization work lately and also some linkbuilding, and actually our SERP’s have been improving in general, and some specific ones have been performing great. Our website is http://www.inmonova.com as a reference. Can anyone cast some light into this?
Moz Pro | | inmonova0 -
How can I update On Page Optimization Reports following 301 redirect?
A few weeks ago I ran the SEOMoz On Page Optimization Reports for one of my sites. At the time, the site homepage was duplicated .com/ and .com/index.html (I know!). The On Page Optimisation Reports I ran at the time obviously included both as individual pages. I've now corrected the duplicate issue with a 301 but the On Page Optimization Reports are still looking at the rankings for .com/index.html and therefore showing "not in top 50" for keywords where I'm actually ranking 1st - any idea how I can get the reports to update so they don't continue to look for .com/index.html? Thanks!
Moz Pro | | trbaldwin0