Handling pages that are no longer relevant (both permanently and temporarily)
-
Hi,
We run a travel site with a number of programs, and each program has its own dedicate page, ie example.com/programs/program-xyz
Some of these programs stop running and we no longer offer them, other-times they are on hold and will be reactivated later.
Our old strategy was to 301-redirect these programs to another, relevant program.
However, I believe that could be flawed. Would it not be a better solution to display the page as normal (with a 200 code) and instead of having the details of the program rather show some text saying the program has stopped and list a few suggestions.
I just don't want to set off any spam-flags by pushing SE value via a 301 redirect to unrelated pages
Here are some other scenarios I was thinking:
-
For the program are only temporarily on-hold (ie not taking bookings for now) 302 redirect those to more appropriate pages
-
For programs that are permanently on-hold (ie will never take bookings again) show a custom 404 or 410 page (With text with suggestions of different programs)
Any suggestions or feedback on this would be most appreciated.
-Jason
-
-
First off, I like the way you're thinking through this - it's critical to understand that no one solution should be applied to every scenario, so here are my thoughts on what you should do:
- For programs no longer offered, I would leave the page up with a notification that it's discontinued plus related products ('this program is no longer offered, but here are some other programs you might like'). Your idea of having a custom 404 for discontinued products (with the same type of language) could also work. If you do 301 redirect visitors, I suggest going to the category page & also incorporating some way of letting the visitor know. You basically want to avoid confusing the visitor by taking them somewhere different than expected.
- For the programs temporarily on hold, do not 302 redirect them - 302s should be avoided in almost all cases. Instead, leave the page live & let the visitor know that this program is currently unavailable, with a CTA to be alerted via email as soon as it's available. Also have related products in case they need the program/service now.
There's an old Moz post (that I can't find atm) where Rand explains how he dealt with this situation - I believe he had the same idea as I shared, followed by closely monitoring the traffic to the pages; then adding 301s to the very low trafficked pages & working to improve the messaging/CTA/UX of the ones still receiving traffic.
I hope this helps!
-
I've given this some further thought and I guess ones needs to keep in mind that just because from a business point of view the actual program is not running doesn't mean the page it is shown on should be affected. If the page is has inbound links, why waste some of that value by 301 redirecting to another page - rather keep the existing value of that page and pass that on to other internal pages using 'other suggested programs' links.
-
301 for permanent changes to programs but I would think that if the program just isn't available at certain times it would be better to return a normal 200 page with the message saying it's not currently running as you suggested
This would seem to make sense from a Google point of view that the page would still be indexed but also from a customer perspective you would presumably still want them to know that you run that program even if it's not currently running - it may be running again for the time they want to use it.
-
Hi, If you want to permanently delete a page and there is still ( a lot) traffic on . i'll think it's best to redirect the page to a relevant one. when there is no traffic and no backlinks, delete it, and delete the page with the url removal from Google webmastertools.
With temporary /on hold pages, i used to give them a 302, but lately i started a test to see what's better. I keep the pages alive, with content and links to another page. I still have to find out what's best, ( just testing this for 1 month) but the bouncerate is low. I want my clients to go to another section of the website, i explain this in the content with the right links.
Grtz, Leonie
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
-
Would You Redirect a Page if the Parent Page was Redirected?
Hi everyone! Let's use this as an example URL: https://www.example.com/marvel/avengers/hulk/ We have done a 301 redirect for the "Avengers" page to another page on the site. Sibling pages of the "Hulk" page live off "marvel" now (ex: /marvel/thor/ and /marvel/iron-man/). Is there any benefit in doing a 301 for the "Hulk" page to live at /marvel/hulk/ like it's sibling pages? Is there any harm long-term in leaving the "Hulk" page under a permanently redirected page? Thank you! Matt
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | amag0 -
Can a duplicate page referencing the original page on another domain in another country using the 'canonical link' still get indexed locally?
Hi I wonder if anyone could help me on a canonical link query/indexing issue. I have given an overview, intended solution and question below. Any advice on this query will be much appreciated. Overview: I have a client who has a .com domain that includes blog content intended for the US market using the correct lang tags. The client also has a .co.uk site without a blog but looking at creating one. As the target keywords and content are relevant across both UK and US markets and not to duplicate work the client has asked would it be worthwhile centralising the blog or provide any other efficient blog site structure recommendations. Suggested solution: As the domain authority (DA) on the .com/.co.uk sites are in the 60+ it would risky moving domains/subdomain at this stage and would be a waste not to utilise the DAs that have built up on both sites. I have suggested they keep both sites and share the same content between them using a content curated WP plugin and using the 'canonical link' to reference the original source (US or UK) - so not to get duplicate content issues. My question: Let's say I'm a potential customer in the UK and i'm searching using a keyword phrase that the content that answers my query is on both the UK and US site although the US content is the original source.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JonRayner
Will the US or UK version blog appear in UK SERPs? My gut is the UK blog will as Google will try and serve me the most appropriate version of the content and as I'm in the UK it will be this version, even though I have identified the US source using the canonical link?2 -
May integrating my main category page in the index page improve my ranking of main category keyword?
90% of our sales are made with products in one of our product categories.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | lcourse
A search for main category keyword returns our root domain index page in google, not the category page.
I was wondering whether integrating the complete main category directly in the index page of the root domain and this way including much more relevant content for this main category keyword may have a positive impact on our google ranking for the main category keyword. Any thoughts?1 -
Multiple pages optimised for the same keywords but pages are functionally different and visually different
Hi MOZ community! We're wondering what the implications would be on organic ranking by having 2 pages, which have quite different functionality were optimised for the same keywords. So, for example, one of the pages in question is
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TrueluxGroup
https://www.whichledlight.com/categories/led-spotlights
and the other page is
https://www.whichledlight.com/t/led-spotlights both of these pages are basically geared towards the keyword led spotlights the first link essentially shows the options for led spotlights, the different kind of fittings available, and the second link is a product search / results page for all products that are spotlights. We're wondering what the implications of this could be, as we are currently looking to improve the ranking for the site particularly for this keyword. Is this even safe to do? Especially since we're at the bottom of the hill of climbing the ranking ladder of this keyword. Give us a shout if you want any more detail on this to answer more easily 🙂0 -
Hreflang and paginated page
Hi, I can not seem to find good documentation about the use of hreflang and paginated page when using rel=next , rel=prev
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TjeerdvZ
Does any know where to find decent documentatio?, I could only find documentation about pagination and hreflang when using canonicals on the paginated page. I have doubts on what is the best option: The way tripadvisor does it:
http://www.tripadvisor.nl/Hotels-g187139-oa390-Corsica-Hotels.html
Each paginated page is referring to it's hreflang paginated page, for example: So should the hreflang refer to the pagined specific page or should it refer to the "1st" page? in this case:
http://www.tripadvisor.nl/Hotels-g187139-Corsica-Hotels.html Looking foward to your suggestions.0 -
Are these doorway pages?
I've added category pages for counties/town on http://www.top-10-dating-reviews.com but will google see these as doorway pages? If you click on categories from the menu at the top and view some of the pages you'll hopefully see what I mean? Should I continue building these or delete them? Any advice appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SamCUK0 -
Multiple 301 Redirects for the Same Page
Hi Mozzers, What happens if I have a trail of 301 redirects for the same page? For example,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Travis-W
SiteA.com/10 --> SiteA.com/11 --> SiteA.com/13 --> SiteA.com/14 I know I lose a little bit of link juice by 301 redirecting.
The question is, would the link juice look like this for the example above? 100% --> 90% --> 81% -->72.9%
Or just 100% -----------------------------------------> 90% Does this link juice refer to juice from inbound links or links between internal pages on my site? Thanks!0 -
301 Redirect for 2500 pages
Hi, We have an existing site done in DNN and we recreated it on a new platform (EPiServer) and now we're going live. However, there are 2500+ page URLs from the old site which is not exisitng on the new site. What do you reckon is the best way we can address this? Do we create a 301 redirect individually for each of these pages? These 2500+ pages have a domain authority 34-35 and I think it's best that we retain those. We'll be using the same domain name. Suggestions for ways to approach this issue would be greatly appreciated. I have access to the server and IIS. *Also, how do I create a virtual page in IIS? and redirect it to another URL within the site? Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Peter.Huxley590