Best way to remove spammy landing pages?
-
Hey Mozzers,
We recently took over a website for a new client of ours and discovered that their previous webmaster had been using a WordPress plugin to generate 5,000+ mostly duplicated local landing pages. The pages are set up more or less as "Best (service) provided in (city)"
I checked Google Webmaster Tools and it looks like Google is ignoring most of these spammy pages already (about 30 pages out of nearly 6,000 are indexed), but it's not reporting any manual webspam actions.
Should we just delete the landing pages all at once or phase them out a few (hundred) at a time?
Even though the landing pages are mostly garbage, I worry that lopping off over 95% of a site's pages in one fell swoop could have other significant consequences.
Thanks!
-
Hi Brian,
Good for you for discovering these. The process I would recommend would look like this:
-
Create a strategy for launching a set of new, excellent pages that cover the basics without needing to cover every possible combo as these duplicate/thin pages are likely trying to do.
-
Launch your new pages.
-
Delete the old ones and say, 'good riddance!'
-
-
I would fold the deletion of these pages into any other design and content changes you have planned for the site. Also, 301 redirection in place of all the old URLs will minimize any 404s that might have been created otherwise. Spidering software like ScreamingFrog or Xenu can help you spot inbound internal links on the pages.
Ultimately these pages are going to go away, either in terms of design or outright deletion so don't let the rate at which you delete them impede other decisions as you move forward in your work on the site.
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
-
Daytona Beach Web Design vs. Daytona Web Design: What's Best?
Three months ago we had our team create local pages for some of the services we render -- _i.e., _web design. As we reviewed the pages, they created two pages with similar content; one with URL: /daytona-beach-web-design/ & /daytona-web-design/ We knew we had to kill one of them to avoid duplicate content. Here is where the hard decision came and hence the question. We though about keeping the '/daytona-beach-web-design/ ' URL but for some reason, Google had already crawled the shorter version of the URL '/daytona-web-design/' So we ended up deleting the long tail URL and kept Daytona Web Design instead. Which one would you keep and have you experienced similar issues?
Local Website Optimization | | WebDaytona0 -
Do you use HREF lang tags when each page that is localised only exists in that language?
Hi, I have 2 questions I am seeking an answer for. We have a home page in english GB, we then also have products which are specifically served in US. For these pages where the phone number is american, the spelling is american, the address is american, do we need to implement href lang tags? The page isn't a version of another page in english, the page is only in the native language.Secondly, is it recommended to create a second home page and then localise that page for US users?I'd be really greatful if anyone has any pointers as googles forum doesn't explain best practice for this case (as far as I can tell).Many thanks
Local Website Optimization | | Adam_PirateStudios0 -
What more can be done to get Google to change the landing pages it uses for certain search terms?
For one of my SEO campaigns, Google is using the website's home page as the landing page for the majority of search terms being tracked. The website splits its products by region and so we want specific region pages to rank for search terms related to that region, rather than the home page. We have optimised each regional page to a reasonably high standard and we have ensured that there is a good amount of internal linking and sign-posting to those region pages, however, Google is still using the home page. The only complication is that for the first few months there were canonical tags on these pages to the home page. These were removed around 3 months ago and we've checked that the region pages are indexed properly. Is there anything we are missing? Has anyone had any success in getting Google to change its landing pages?
Local Website Optimization | | ClickHub-Harry0 -
Best Sources for Advertising Commercial Real Estate?
After spending over $50,000 and 3 years on web site development and SEO I realized that advertising on such commercial real estate sites as Loopnet and Cityfeet were more cost effective for developing leads for identifying businesses seeking commercial space in New York City. My firm is a tenant rep brokerage assisting tenants in the acquisition of office, showroom and commercial lofts space in Manhattan. When my firmswitched to Loopnet I was astounded that this site generated leads at a lower cost and a greater quantity than my private branded website (www.metro-manhattan.com). I would have thought that a private branded site would be more effective. Now 2 years later I am having issued with Loopnet and can no longer advertise there. Does any one have any suggestions concerning business websites where we can advertise commercial tenant representation services in Manhattan? Sites like www.officespace.com look like they have potential. LinkedIn sounds like a good demographic but I am concerned that advertising would only generate requests for links rather than generating bona fide leads. Thoughts??? Thanks, Alan
Local Website Optimization | | Kingalan10 -
Listing bundle info on site and on local SEO page.
We just finished a new telecom site, and like all telecom sites (think AT&T, Verizon, Suddenlink, etc.), we allow people to put their location in and find internet and phone service packages (what we call bundles) unique to their area. This page also has contact information for the local sales team and some unique content. However, we're about to start putting up smaller, satellite pages for our local SEO initiative. Of course, these pages will have unique content as well, but it will have some of the same content as what's on the individual bundle page, such as package offerings, NAP, etc. Currently this is the URL structure for the bundles: domain.com/bundles/town-name/ This is what I'm planning for the local SEO pages: domain.com/location/town-name-state/ All local FB pages, Google listings, etc. will like to these location pages, rather than the bundle pages. Is this okay or should I consolidate them into one?
Local Website Optimization | | AMATechTel0 -
Best marketing for a language learning site
Hello everybody, I'm a programmer so I'm not very good at marketing. Any idea what the best way is to promote my language learning site? (http://www.antosch-and-lin.com/) Since Google Penguin the site has taken a big hit and the changes suggested by a SEO expert hasn't helped. Thanks for any suggestions!
Local Website Optimization | | delpino0 -
Location pages for Landing pages
So i have a client for carpet cleaning in Seattle, but he doesn't just want to rank up for "Carpet Cleaning Seattle" he wants to rank up for sub locations such as Lynnwood Carpet Cleaning
Local Website Optimization | | tonyr7
Kirkland Carpet Cleaning
Kenmore Carpet Cleaning
Issaquah Carpet Cleaning
Everett Carpet Cleaning
Edmonds Carpet Cleaning
Bothell Carpet Cleaning
Bellevue Carpet Cleaning
Auburn Carpet Cleaning
Orting Carpet Cleaning
Monroe Carpet Cleaning
Milton Carpet Cleaning
Marysville Carpet Cleaning
Lacey Carpet Cleaning Right now the designer he hired to develop the website has created a separate web page for each of these location pages. the reason being he services all these areas and wants to rank up for all of these areas with basically the same keyword... SEO is fairly simple to me when it comes to straight forward small sized projects or targeting specific services in one set location. But with all these algorithmic changes I worry that this is not something Google may want to see.. What is my best bet with this project, and what SEO methods would you recommend for a site that has 40 total landing pages all with similar keywords just different locations?0 -
How do I fix duplicate content issues if the pages are really just localized versions?
Does this still hurt our SEO? Should we place different countries on their own respective domains (.co.uk, etc)?
Local Website Optimization | | fdmgroup0