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This can be partially resolved by setting up "rel=canonical" tags on the website that you want Google to index. This is particularly advantageous when there is live duplicate content. It is basically a hint to the search engine that says "Look here!!".

Also, a better strategy to test landing pages, may be using a tool called Google Optimize, this will allow you to employ A/B and multivariate testing, without having a separate domain

Hopefully this helps!

John

The changes you made could be affecting the quality score of the landing page, did your quality score change at all? A decrease in quality score will result in a higher CPC. Is it one particular keyword that the CPC has increased for, or is it across the board? Also, what bidding strategy do you use?

Hey William!

What kind of redirect was set up for the first URL to point to the second?

Top of the morning to you!!

As long as you 301 redirect the old URL's to the current related pages, 90-99% of the page authority will transfer to the current URL. It would also be advantageous, if those old URL's contain duplicate or similar content, to set up "rel=canonical" tags for the current URL. The canonical tag basically tells search engine crawlers which URLs to index. I would also use a tool like AHREFS to research the page authority of these old URL's. If you have thousands of old URL's to transfer, it will really only benefit you, from an SEO standpoint, to transfer the pages with a higher page authority.

So, to answer your question, there is not a lot of risk, if you redirect correctly. It would also help, going forward, when there is a URL change, to automatically set up a 301 redirect, that way you don't have thousands to sift through.

The simple answer would be yes.

However, the amount of page authority that you receive from these mentions are up for debate. Personally, I use Moz Pro's opportunities section to view link-less mentions and subsequently try to convert those mentions into an actual link. Remember, this unlinked mention will be a secondary signal, not a primary, so, it is always better to try to convert to an actual link. In my experience, I have had excellent luck contacting the person who wrote the article to link my website.

Best of luck!

John