Newby question about 301 redericts
-
I work for a design firm who has been updating a website for a client. In addition to a new look, we've consolidated redundant pages for a more streamlined site. My question is this: when I have replaced 3 somewhat redundant pages on the old site with 1 page on the new site, should I 301 redirect all the former pages to the one new page. I know this question is beyond basic but I'm pretty new to SEO, so be gentle.
-
Patrick,
Thanks for the info on disavowing backlinks. I'm just starting to dig into it.
Re: Running through backlinks, I read the article you referenced. It was pretty comprehensive but it wasn't clear to me how to redirect a backlink to the new page. Is this something to discuss with the person responsible for linking to you or is there a technology solution you have in mind. I feel like a bonehead having to ask, but I'm eager to learn here, so I'm ignoring the potential for looking pretty stupid and asking anyway.
-
Awesome. You've gone above and beyond! Thanks again. I look forward to digging into the details of these links just as soon as I can.
-
Hi Paul
Yes, you would, but the vast majority of the work is done with research.
Here are some resources:
Disavow backlinks (Google)
Your Start-to-Finish Guide to Using Google's Disavow Tools (Moz)
Disavowed: Secrets of Google's Most Mysterious Tool (Moz)Take a look at these as well as the backlink audit resources above. That should help you get started!
Hope this helps!
-
Thanks, Patrick. I certainly do appreciate the pointers. I've never done anything with disavowing backlinks although I've heard about it. Do you do this in GWT?
-
Hi there
If the information from those pages moved to the new page and are still relevant, you should 301 redirect those pages.
I would also update your sitemap and upload it to Google and Bing Webmaster Tools.
I would also make sure your internal links are up to date and and that you run through your backlinks to correct backlinks to the new page URL or to remove those that are relevant/spammy.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
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
-
Rel=canonical on landing page question
Currently we have two versions of a category page on our site (listed below) Version A: www.example.com/category • lives only in the SERPS but does not live on our site navigation • has links • user experience is not the best Version B: www.example.com/category?view=all • lives in our site navigation • has a rel=canonical to version A • very few links and doesn’t appear in the SERPS • user experience is better than version A Because the user experience of version B is better than version A I want to take out the rel=canonical in version B to version A and instead put a rel=canonical to version B in version A. If I do this will version B show up in the SERPS eventually and replace version A? If so, how long do you think this would take? Will this essentially pass page rank from version A to version B
Technical SEO | | znotes0 -
Website(s) Merge Questions
Hello Moz Community I have three separate websites that I have planned on merging into one. I recently acquired a strong domain ( stronger than my existing ones ) & after much deliberation, I have decided to move them together into one domain. Site 1) 1 Forum - Around since 2007 - Originally VBulletin, last year migrated to discourse. Site 2) E-commercece Magento Site - Around since 2010 Site 3) WordPress - Blog & Articles - Around since last year - Currently using the new ( Main Domain I want to use ) After a lot of research and White Board Fridays, I was thinking this would be my best bet: newdomain.com - Merged WordPress & Magento CMS Page. newdomain.com/ forum <-- Will move my forum content & Install to the new domain. newdomain.com/ store <-- Will move my Ecommerce content & Install. Between my developer and I, we have our heads around how to handle the technical aspect of the move, 301s to the new location etc. But one area we want to research before pulling the trigger ( we haven't found much data on this ) **My Main Question:**What is the possible penalty coming for shopping websites vs. content-driven websites, and possibility that forum-based content hosted on the same domain might cause another penalty to be applied to the other content on the domain. **My Developer Says:**In recent years, we noticed that forum content had been penalized in favor of editorially reviewed content when this is identified by search engines.
Technical SEO | | Shop-Sq
What big hiccups would / could we encounter from combining these 3 types of platforms into one site?Many thanks for any direction or insight.0 -
Rank a site that was 301'd
We had a customer that had 2 sites. They left us, and 301'd site A to site B. Things didn't go well. Now, a year later they want to use us again. Ideally, I would undo the 301. Has anyone done this? Would I be better off starting with a new domain? If you've done it, how long before it started to rank like you expected/hoped?
Technical SEO | | TimColeman0 -
Indexation question
Hi Guys, i have a small problem with our development website. Our development website is website.dev.website.nl This page shouldn't be indexed bij Google but unfortunately it is. What can i do to deindex it and ask google not to index this website. In the robots.txt or are there better ways to do this? Kind regards Ruud
Technical SEO | | RuudHeijnen0 -
Question Concerning Pages With Too Many Links:
I have run SEO moz software for a clients site, Its showing that virtually every single page has too many links. For instance this url: http://www.golfthere.com/AboutUs Am I missing something? I do not see 157 links on this page.
Technical SEO | | ToddKing0 -
Robots.txt question
Hello, What does the following command mean - User-agent: * Allow: / Does it mean that we are blocking all spiders ? Is Allow supported in robots.txt ? Thanks
Technical SEO | | seoug_20050 -
404 vs 301
My company is planning on discontinuing one of the product lines we currently offer. In terms of SEO, would it be better to implement a 301 redirect to a generic page page (such as the homepage or main product page), or to create a custom 404 page explaining that the product line with links to other pages (according to the most next viewed pages in Google Analytics). Thanks!
Technical SEO | | theLotter0 -
Complex duplicate content question
We run a network of three local web sites covering three places in close proximity. Each sitehas a lot of unique content (mainly news) but there is a business directory that is shared across all three sites. My plan is that the search engines only index the business in the directory that are actually located in the place the each site is focused on. i.e. Listing pages for business in Alderley Edge are only indexed on alderleyedge.com and businesses in Prestbury only get indexed on prestbury.com - but all business have a listing page on each site. What would be the most effective way to do this? I have been using rel canonical but Google does not always seem to honour this. Will using meta noindex tags where appropriate be the way to go? or would be changing the urls structure to have the place name in and using robots.txt be a better option. As an aside my current url structure is along the lines of: http://dev.alderleyedge.com/directory/listing/138/the-grill-on-the-edge Would changing this have any SEO benefit? Thanks Martin
Technical SEO | | mreeves0