Redesign an SEO-Disaster | Help with Redirects of Gray Hat Pages

[Mills]

Hi gang. I'm a new SEO and I'm currently working on the redesign of a website. I have just discovered a ton of hidden pages that are filled with duplicate content, basically reiterating the main keyword in a variety of different variations. Each page is titled with the variation on the keyword phrase and then has one paragraph of text very similar to the previous page, etc.

Here is an example of one of the offensive pages (nice lookin' site, eh?):

http://www.vasectomy-reversals.com/vasectomy_reversal_surgery.html

The new site will not have any of these pages.  I'm writing the 301 redirects now and want to redirect these offensive pages to the most relevant page on the new site. But, I'm afraid to redirect the offensive pages. Should I leave them alone, or can I have the former developer remove them?  Help. Don't know how to handle these pages and their redirects.

Thanks for your help!

~ Mills

[NerdsOnCall]

I like the option of doing a no index follow tag. Good call Gianluca. I love reading your advice because it's the result of so much experience!

[RobertFisher]

OK, so the main thing he did was around taking content and attaching it to every major city with the only change being the next city in the keyword phrase. 
I would suggest following what you have seen here, optimize locally based on the city he is in to include google places, bing business portal and yahoo local. Then, if you really believe there is a market in those other cities, do microsites that link back to the city you are in.

Or, if he has affiliations with other practitioners in those cities utilize them to assist in the outer area marketing. Either with links or with actually having a page or two about him on their sites. Always try to maintain as much of the original Domain Auth. as is possible.

Hope this helps.

[RyanKent]

Hi Mills.

Your concerns are valid and it sounds like you are taking the right approach with the new site. There are numerous other means to establish local relevance without copying a page and simply adding the various city names.

Based on the example you shared, I would follow Robert's advice and create a single, top quality page for "Vasectomy Reversals" then add content to establish relevance for given locales. A few examples of how that can be accomplished:

• list the doctor's education and training. "Attended Univ of Texas - Austin, Undergraduate degree", "Attended Univ of Texas - San Antonio, Doctorate Degree", "Certified by the Texas Board of xyz in Dallas"

• list the doctor's work experience and locations

• list the doctor's current licenses. For example, he may be a licensed physician but each hospital has a process by which they approve doctors to work in their location. "Approved to practice by Dallas Medical Center", etc.

• any quality user-generated content and/or testimonials "....  John S. Dallas, TX"

[Mills]

Hi Robert. Thanks for your message. The person who built the original site had many pages like this one that were essentially duplicate content of the real page that addressed vasectomy reversals, etc. He did page after page of every variation of the keyword(s). While the keywords are good, the tactic is what I find alarming (i.e., offensive). I'm concerned the SE's will consider this a negative tactic because the pages are not falling into a natural context of the site's architecture. There is page after page of "vasectomy reversals in Austin" and "dallas" and "san antonio", etc. These pages are not linked to from anywhere on the site. Seemed like a red flag to me but wasn't sure.

Thanks!
Lindsay

p.s. Yes, this is for a real urologist specializing in male infertility/vasectomy reversals.

[RobertFisher]

OK, you have two Gurus (yes they are, I read their stuff) and another journeyman answering the technical stuff. But, I have to ask (I am an RN who worked with a talented urologist who did vasectomy reversals for those who typically had gotten a vas, divorced, remarried, and you can figure out the rest). There were no images when I went to the link and I am assuming from what you wrote these are not for a urology practice? If they are for a urology practice, there really are men - with wives - who want to reverse a vasectomy. This surgery is generally performed by a highly skilled urologist who spends a lot of days sewing really small vessels as practice.

If this is truly for a urologist who does this, i would suggest taking a step back as to what is or is not offensive. Then take a look at keyword queries around this and around vasectomy. If you can utilize the ranking you have, you should do so by all means. Then, build a site that will attract those who want this surgery.

Hope this helps.

[RyanKent]

There are two benefits to 301 redirecting these pages to your new site:

1. You will capture any traffic which these pages have generated. Old bookmarks, e-mailed links, etc.

2. You will retain any backlinks from those pages.

I only looked at the one link you shared and there were no visible backlinks. I would suggest taking a look at your Google Analytics for the past 30 days to determine if these pages have any traffic. If the other pages have no backlinks and are of this low quality and no meaningful traffic, I would not bother with redirecting them.

If you remove them, just make sure your 404 Page Not Found web page is helpful. It should include your standard site navigation along with a search box so visitors can find the content they seek.

[gfiorelli1]

Do you really need to 301 those pages?

I mean, if you don't need them, if they are substantially a manipulative way of influencing ranking, the best to do is to not add them to the new site.

To redirect them may be a solution, if you can't simply delete those pages. But do it to a safer page than the homepage: why not to a page where you add: "noindex, follow". Not being indexed, that page won't harm the site from eventual penalization.

[NerdsOnCall]

Hi, I think you should work to create one awesome, optimized page per topic (which it sounds like you might be doing).

If the "offensive pages" are ranking, and bringing in traffic, definitely redirect them. If they have links pointing to them, redirect them. If the offensive pages, aren't ranking, and don't have any links pointed at them, then just delete the page all together.