Handling pages that are no longer relevant (both permanently and temporarily)

[Clickmetrics]

Hi,

We run a travel site with a number of programs, and each program has its own dedicate page, ie example.com/programs/program-xyz

Some of these programs stop running and we no longer offer them, other-times they are on hold and will be reactivated later.

Our old strategy was to 301-redirect these programs to another, relevant program.

However, I believe that could be flawed. Would it not be a better solution to display the page as normal (with a 200 code) and instead of having the details of the program rather show some text saying the program has stopped and list a few suggestions.

I just don't want to set off any spam-flags by pushing SE value via a 301 redirect to unrelated pages

Here are some other scenarios I was thinking:

• For the program are only temporarily on-hold (ie not taking bookings for now) 302 redirect those to more appropriate pages

• For programs that are permanently on-hold (ie will never take bookings again) show a custom 404 or 410 page (With text with suggestions of different programs)

Any suggestions or feedback on this would be most appreciated.

-Jason

[Sheena_Schleicher]

First off, I like the way you're thinking through this - it's critical to understand that no one solution should be applied to every scenario, so here are my thoughts on what you should do:

• For programs no longer offered, I would leave the page up with a notification that it's discontinued plus related products ('this program is no longer offered, but here are some other programs you might like'). Your idea of having a custom 404 for discontinued products (with the same type of language) could also work. If you do 301 redirect visitors, I suggest going to the category page & also incorporating some way of letting the visitor know. You basically want to avoid confusing the visitor by taking them somewhere different than expected.
• For the programs temporarily on hold, do not 302 redirect them - 302s should be avoided in almost all cases. Instead, leave the page live & let the visitor know that this program is currently unavailable, with a CTA to be alerted via email as soon as it's available. Also have related products in case they need the program/service now.

There's an old Moz post (that I can't find atm) where Rand explains how he dealt with this situation - I believe he had the same idea as I shared, followed by closely monitoring the traffic to the pages; then adding 301s to the very low trafficked pages & working to improve the messaging/CTA/UX of the ones still receiving traffic.

I hope this helps!

[Clickmetrics]

I've given this some further thought and I guess ones needs to keep in mind that just because from a business point of view the actual program is not running doesn't mean the page it is shown on should be affected. If the page is has inbound links, why waste some of that value by 301 redirecting to another page - rather keep the existing value of that page and pass that on to other internal pages using 'other suggested programs' links.

[Ham1979]

301 for permanent changes to programs but I would think that if the program just isn't available at certain times it would be better to return a normal 200 page with the message saying it's not currently running as you suggested

This would seem to make sense from a Google point of view that the page would still be indexed but also from a customer perspective you would presumably still want them to know that you run that program even if it's not currently running - it may be running again for the time they want to use it.

[Leonie-Kramer]

Hi, If you want to permanently delete a page and there is still ( a lot) traffic on . i'll think it's best to redirect the page to a relevant one. when there is no traffic  and no backlinks, delete it,  and delete the page with the url removal from Google webmastertools.

With temporary /on hold pages,  i used to give them a 302, but lately i started a test to see what's better. I keep the pages alive, with content and links to another page. I still have to find out what's best, ( just testing this for 1 month) but the bouncerate is low.  I want my clients to go to another section of the website, i explain this in the content with the right links.

Grtz, Leonie