Depreciated content - Canononical, 301, or noindex?
-
I have a page that has existed on our website for many years, without ever being updated.This is what I would consider an "evergreen" content page, but it is now considered out of date and depreciated. It was never ranking high for any keyword in particular, but it is a page that has existed for many years.
We have now created a more up-to-date version of the page, with much more informative content, a new URL, and of course it is SEO optimized.
I am puzzled as to what I should do with my old page. Should I add a canononical link pointing it to the new updated page, or should I 301 redirect it to the new page, or should I no-index the old page?
What are your thoughts and suggestions?
I can give more information if needed.
Thank you!!
-
If it has inbound links, I would 301, assuming the topic is at least the same.
If it has no inbound links, I would probably delete it and allow the page to 404.
It seems webmasters keep creating new pages on the same topic, rather than improving the content on the older page. It doesn't make sense.
-
Sounds like a pretty clear 301 redirect
-
I wouldn't advise a canonical. That's not really the purpose of canonical tags. If the page isn't ranking or has no real value then a no-index isn't going to hurt you. What you really need to decide is if the old page is still relevant and useful. If it isn't relevant or useful any longer than you should 301 redirect it. If the content is similar and still relevant, but you don't want it to compete with the new content then you no index it. If the content is relevant and significantly different then you may want to leave it live and link to the new page.
Without seeing the content this is hard to determine, but guessing where you are trying to go with this I'd say a 301 sounds most appropriate.
-
Hi
What are the urls for both pages and what is the keyword or keywords that are you targeting with this new page ?
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
-
Copying my content on a tour operator platform
I am selling my tours on a platform that resells tours. They are taking the content on mywebsite (the description of each of day of my itinerary) to put on their platform. Can I have duplicate content issues doing that ? Thank you,
On-Page Optimization | | seoanalytics0 -
No-index or 301 - custom wordpress archives
Hi, We are using custom wordpresss posts to showcase different services we provide, these are then grouped within custom archives. These custom archive pages are our main keyword landing pages and traffic generators (although ranking is fairly average). It's come to my attention that these custom posts have also been listed in the wordpress standard categories, with an identical title, excerpts and near identical urls as the custom archives. This appears to have been the case for quite a while. We are concerned that this is may causing duplicate content issues and unsure how to proceed. We have been advised to simply no-index the redundant 'standard' categories but as they have been indexed for some time we are cautious of causing any upset with search engines (although the categories are indexed they are not ranking for any major keywords) Are we best 301ing the redundant category to the custom archives or using a canonical tags or simply no-indexing the categories like other archive pages? Any advice is aprreciated Many thanks BC
On-Page Optimization | | benct0 -
Duplicate content with tagging and categories
Hello, Moz is showing that a site has duplicate content - which appears to be because of tags and categories. It is a relatively new site, with only a few blog publications so far. This means that the same articles are displayed under a number of different tags and categories... Is this something I should worry about, or just wait until I have more content? The 'tag' and 'category' pages are not really pages I would expect or aim for anyone to find in google results anyway. Would be glad to here any advice / opinions on this Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | wearehappymedia1 -
Thin Content pages
I have a couple of pages that are thin content. One is essentially a page with the icons of our customers and a link out to their website. The other is a summary portfolio page that has some images of some of the client work we have done with links to internal pages that have more details about each client situation, approach, etc. These deeper pages are just fine. What is the recommendation for handling these thin content pages? We could add content, but then it wouldn't really help the user very much.
On-Page Optimization | | ExploreConsulting0 -
Duplicate content: Form labels and field content
I have a site that has 500 pages, each with unique content, the only content that could be deemed the same is the 'Make Contact' form, which has the same labels and placeholder text on each page. Is this likely to cause any duplicate content penalties?
On-Page Optimization | | deployseo0 -
301 rediects - weird characters
Hi, Just cleaning up some 404 errors in my site in GWT and noticed a couple of external links pointing at me that are wrong. Basically they are from a couple of DIY forum sites (I've not put these links in place myself they are 100% natural) and it appears that the owners of the forums amend the links (inserting characters into link) so they are not quite right. How would I go about redirecting the following - www.example.co.uk/blueberry_pie.htm Whatever I try doesn't work and I always end up with a 404! Cheers
On-Page Optimization | | Jon-C
J0 -
Thin content and tabs on page
I am reviewing a site, and the web designer used tabs to impart information. I think the tabs idea looks great, but it leaves the page looking thin. Here is a link to a product page, could anyone chime in please? http://www.aireindustrial.net/spill-berms/foam-berm-drive-over-berms.asp Thanks in advance for your opinion!
On-Page Optimization | | drufast10 -
Cross Domain Duplicate Content
Hi My client has a series of websies, one main website and several mini websites, articles are created and published daily and weekly, one will go on a the main website and the others on one, two, or three of the mini sites. To combat duplication, i only ever allow one article to be indexed (apply noindex to articles that i don't wanted indexed by google, so, if 3 sites have same article, 2 sites will have noindex tag added to head). I am not completely sure if this is ok, and whether there are any negative affects, apart from the articles tagged as noindex not being indexed. Are there any obvious issues? I am aware of the canonical link rel tag, and know that this can be used on the same domain, but can it be used cross domain, in place of the noindex tag? If so, is it exactly the same in structure as the 'same domain' canonical link rel tag? Thanks Matt
On-Page Optimization | | mattys0