Rebranding: 404 to homepage?
-
Hello all!
I did a rebranding, [Domain A] -> [Domain B]. what to do with all the 404 pages?1. [Domain A (404)] -> [Domain B (homepage)]?
2. [Domain A (404)] -> [Domain B (404 page + same url) - for example: xixix.com/page/blaWhat do you think ?
-
I can't think of any reason it wouldn't be safe to alter those redirects after a month. You may want to resubmit your sitemap in Webmaster Tools to alert Google, but it should be totally safe.
I'm afraid I can't recommend a plugin or regular expression—those are both well outside my expertise. As an agency SEO, I placed 301s in .htaccess or had a dev do it for me.
-
and it's safety to do that after a month? all my 404s redirect to my homepage currently.
and you know about plugin + regular expression for this?
-
I have to agree here. I tend to believe that redirecting all 404s to the homepage isn't the best idea from a user experience perspective. If a user clicks on a link on your site expecting to find information on a particular topic and instead winds up on the homepage with no explanation, they're likely to get frustrated.
Honestly, your BEST bet is to 301-redirect all old URLs to their equivalent new pages. If there are no corresponding new pages, then I'd say redirecting to a 404 page is your best bet.
-
Hello John,
Ok, a little misunderstanding here! Remember first of all that I'm only trying to help/advice you but I don't know your domain, your site and what you may have in mind hehe.
If you read my first answer, I said "the best option". Both options were good, but in my case, I prefer to put a 404 page instead of sending the users to the homepage (with no explanation). Again, this is only a little improvement in terms of UX but in terms of SEO both options work fine.
It's all I can say!
Luis
-
If I understand you correct, you meant to keep it as is? 404 -> homepage?why? why you changed your decision?
-
Well, in that case probably I'd keep it like that (I don't see any SEO/IT problem with a redirect to the homepage!)
It's just that I rather prefer the other solution in terms of UX.
Luis
-
I have a website with +3000 visitors per day, I don't know how many 404s I have in my old website because all of them redirect to my Homepage, I have no any idea how many.
Don't forget: I have a news websites with 20,000 pages (live). it's okay to keep the redirects as is? )(to homepage?)
all the 404s came from forums/comments from third party websites. -
I don't know this plugin sorry!
Let's think about 2 scenarios to understand the situation here:
- If a site is having 1,000+ visitors/month watching a 404 error ==> the problem here is not the 404 landing page, but a bad domain URL redirect or something different to be analyzed.
- If a site is having 20 visitors/month watching a 404 error ==> there's no problem here, this happens to everyone and you should take care of them creating a 404 landing page to minimize the impact of a 404 error.
In what case you are now? I need more information in order to help you/giving you deeper advice.
Luis
-
I have a Wordpress site you know plugin (RegEx)?
and what I'll do with all the errors in my WMT?
-
Hello John,
Do you know plugin for this? (for the auto redirect 404 to the same page with another domain)?
==> May I know your domain name? Are you using wordpress? Sometimes you don't even need a plugin for this if you know how to code
and important question: If I did it already, I meant, all 404 redirect to Homepage. It's safety to replace it again?
==> YES, normally shouldn't impact your site
Luis
-
Hi Luis!
Thanks for your answer!
Do you know plugin for this? (for the auto redirect 404 to the same page with another domain)?and important question: If I did it already, I meant, all 404 redirect to Homepage. It's safety to replace it again?
-
Hello John,
I think the best option is the second one: [Domain A (404)] -> [Domain B (404 page + same url). In the 404 page, you can implement a 404 page with some options, and your visitors could chose if they want to go to the homepage, blog, abandon the site,....
Remember, this page is necessary but you don't want people land this page I dont know your SEO/IT level, but you should be sure to redirect properly all your old pages to the new ones using the htacces file.
- domain(A) --> domain (B)
- domain(A)/homepage --> domain(B)/homepage
- domain(A)/about-us --> domain(B)/about-us
- and so on....
This is specially important to avoid an increase in the number of visitors landing to your 404 page after a rebranding/domain change.
Hope this helps,
Luis
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
-
How do I fix a 404 redirect chain
How do I fix a 404 redirect chain? I can't seem to find the answer and I'm worried about it effecting my SEO. Any help would be great!
Technical SEO | | sammecooper0 -
Subpage with own homepage and navigation good or bad?
Hi everybody, I have the following question. At the company I work, we deliver several services. We help people buy the right second hand car (technical inspections). But we also have an import-service. Because those services are so different, I want to split them on our website. So our main website is all about the technical inspections. Then, when you click on import, you go to www.example.com/import. A subpage with it's own homepage en navigation, all about the import service. It's like you have an extra website on the same domain. Does anyone has experience with this in terms of SEO? Thank you for your time! Kind regards, Robert
Technical SEO | | RobertvanHeerde0 -
Search Console has found over 18k 404 errors in my site, should I redirect?
most of them where old URLs pointed from a really old domain, that we have just shutten down. If the pages didn't receive any traffic, should we redirect? If I follow this https://moz.com/learn/seo/http-status-codes we shouldn't
Technical SEO | | pablo_carrara0 -
Homepage Not Ranking in Google - How long do old (not current) bad SEO practices exert influence?
I'm trying to get to the bottom of a problem I have with the Google ranking for mauiactivities.com - it's far below what I would hope for. My research so far has uncovered the following, and any advice on where to go from here would be appreciated. _Edit:_No problems with Bing or Yahoo - the site is #1 for primary key word 'maui activities' 1. Running a site:http://www.mauiactivities.com search in Google reveals that the homepage doesn't rank. At all. I looked through the 17 pages of results and can't spot it. Edit: I have now, after fresh checks after submitting the homepage through Search Console, found it at #1 - still, the following applies ... 2. I've found that the domain (before it was purchased by my client in 2011) had some bad inbound links, specifically from scubamaui.com (no longer active). The links where white, on a white background. This web archive snapshot will reveal all. 3. Those bad links were 'cleaned up' (i.e. they don't show in the web archive) from 2014, and as mentioned above, the website is now 'down'. 4. Search Console doesn't have a manual penalty. 5. When I search for 'tropical divers maui' in Google I find www.mauiactivities.com is the 4th result. To me, this indicates a current relationship with the dead site (Tropical Divers Maui). No other term comes close to ranking to high for the homepage. So, to summarise - can the old, dead Tropical Divers Maui website still be affecting the Google ranking, and what would you suggest I do next?
Technical SEO | | jsherwin0 -
Getting 404 error when open the cache link of my site
My site is hazanstadservice.se and when I am trying to open this to check the cache date i got a 404 error from google. I don't know why ? The cache page url is http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:j99uW96RuToJ:www.hazanstadservice.se/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk.
Technical SEO | | Softlogique0 -
Status code 404??!
among other things... I'm getting this error: http://worldvoicestudio.com/blog/"http://worldvoicestudio.com/" http://worldvoicestudio.com/blog/"http://worldvoicestudio.com/" Any ideas on how to fix this? many thanks!!
Technical SEO | | malexandro0 -
Site: search doesn't return homepage first
When searching for site:myclient.com their homepage doesn't appear first. I know some SEOs have reported this was a warning sign that there was a penalty. Here is what I've checked/found: Toolbar pagerank remains strong. Homepage is indexed. SEO traffic is falling, but its been gradually falling for a year now, mainly due to the client neglecting any type of marketing campaigns or link building, I believe. There was not a specific drop that could be tied to a penalty. Site remains well indexed. 62,742 of 63,021 URLs in the sitemap are indexed. Site is a large ecommerce site, so many pages are duplicate content (product descriptions). Homepage does rank #1 when searching for string of text present on the homepage. Nothing unusual in Google Webmaster Tools Search for myclient.com returns homepage with 6 expanded sitelinks under it. Google safe browsing check shows no malware. Anything else I should check?
Technical SEO | | AdamThompson0 -
301 category page to Homepage to increase authority
Hello all, Hope everyone is well and are enjoying the summer. I am currently working with a site: www.corporatehealth.co.uk and have been trying to rank on the first page for the keyword occupational health. currently we are ranking on the second page: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=occupational+health&pws=0&gl=uk#q=occupational+health&hl=en&pws=0&gl=uk&prmd=ivnsb&ei=38dUTuHCDdGKhQetqZn5BQ&start=10&sa=N&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=80a9548917d021a&biw=1920&bih=878 I understand I need to get more links pointing to the site and page itself. My idea was to do a 301 redirect from the occupational health page to the homepage and add occupational health content to the homepage as ultimately they are an occupational health service supplier. Was hoping to get anyones thoughts on the issue. Thanks in advance Shehzad
Technical SEO | | Gareth_Cartman0