Should we rename and update a page or create a new page entirely?
-
Hi Moz Peoples!
We have a small site with a simple site navigation, with only a few links on the nav bar. We have been doing some work to create a new page, which will eventually replace one of the links on the nav bar.
The question we are having is, is it better to rename the existing page and replace its content and then wait for the great indexer to do its thing, or perm delete the page and replace it with the new page and content? Or is this a case where it really makes no difference as long as the redirects are set up correctly?
-
Thanks for the information!
I think at this point, we are going to leave the page as is and just change the site nav to link to the new page. We'll leave the other page there to keep doing what its been doing, but without the new traffic from the main site.
-
How similar is the content/subject of the page? For example, if the page used to be about Cats and the URL was website.com/cats, then if you needed to replace it to be about Dogs then obviously you'll have to change the URL to website.com/dogs. Even a 301 redirect from /cats to /dogs doesn't really make much sense, as they're both completely different subjects. You'd be better off 301ing the old /cats to the homepage instead.
However, if the two subjects are similar or related at all, ideally you don't want to change the URL at all. You can change all the content on the page and replace everything if you need to, but the best solution would be to keep the existing URL. Especially if the page has value in terms of page authority/traffic/backlinks. For example, if the page isn't about Cats anymore but specifically Cats' Accessories. You have to ask yourself whether /cats still makes sense in context, and you can optimise everything else on the page for "cats accessories".
Otherwise, go ahead and 301 that bad boy.
Edit: I should note that the decision you make on this will heavily depend on the subjects of the two pages and your existing URL and site structure. Without seeing your site and having some idea on the replacement page, it's hard to give specific advice. Hopefully this response is helpful in that it will give you something to think about though.
-
Hello,
First off - does your old page have value? this could be via links to it, or via the content etc. you may find it its adding value to your site removing it can change how your site works but that is all down to perspective and if you are improving the content aka. value the point is null. realistically is you set up correct 301 any old links etc. will resolve the issue. The problem you may have with 301 if the old page is about e.g. cars and the new page is about bikes the old link profile wont make sense, so be aware of that.
TL:DR
It's preference the short one is as long as you correctly 301 and structure it correctly on the site you'll be fine.
Hope this helps.
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
-
Why will my page description not update??!!
I updated my page title and description along time ago, the title updated but not the description. I updated it in google search console, but it keeps pulling the first few lines from the page content instead, which isn't really an attention grabbing sentence?? Any ideas? Here's the page http://thumannagency.com/personal-insurance/home-insurance This is what my Title/ description comes up as... Homeowners Insurance Quotes Dallas TX | Thumann Agency <cite class="_Rm">thumannagency.com/personal-insurance/home-insurance</cite>When shopping for homeowners insurance in Dallas, TX our local agents will provide you with home insurance quotes from highly rated home insurance ...
On-Page Optimization | | MissThumann0 -
Building a new page: What on-page SEO would you build in?
Hi all, Building a new page for a fairly competitive keyword. Need to make sure the on-page SEO is pretty top notch, because link building (including internal links) will be difficult. I've optimised the meta description, the alt tags and image names, and included the keyword in the Title Tags. Not a great deal I can do with regards to optimising for mobile or considering migrating to the AMP project because this is handled externally. What else would you suggest? Cheers in advance, Rhys
On-Page Optimization | | SwanseaMedicine1 -
We have new website abexpress.ae. The website is not ranking in the first page when I search with the Domain name itself. Any tips to improve the SEO for a new website?
We have launched a website abexpress.ae. The website is not ranking well even if we search with the Domain name. The Domain authority of the website it 10. How to increase this?
On-Page Optimization | | AlliedTransport0 -
If Product Pages Perform Well In Google then Is It Possible That Category Page Can perform Well In Google?
Hi All, For my ecommerce site I have optimized my product pages very nicely like good images, detailed information about products, good reviews, implemented schema for my product and reviews and very perfect onpage. Now my query is if my products pages performing well in google then there are chances that my category page rank well in google too? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | wright3350 -
Page Speed
Google recommends a page load speed of 1.4 seconds, is it recommended to have that page speed for every page on the site, or just the landing pages. Is there a tool that will check the load speed of every page on a site and report the slow pages? The free online tools only check one page at a time.
On-Page Optimization | | Bryan_Loconto0 -
Page Review Please
Can you please tell me what I can do to improve the SEO of this page. I feel like I am seeing the forest and not the trees or the other way around. I just want to learn from the errors of this page, so I can just simply learn http://azbestlistings.com/casa-grande-az-real-estate-homes-for-sale-in-casa-grande-az Thank you,
On-Page Optimization | | sansonj0 -
Duplicate Page Content and Duplicate Page Title
Hi All, I'm new in SEOMoz and have some questions after I have already spend 2-3 days trying to resolve the problems identified from Crawling one of my clients websites. I get quite a lot of Duplicate Page Conntent and Page Titles warnings and trying to find a workaround through the forums and posts. I continuously get this error on most of my pages: URL: http://domain.com/benefits with the same Page but with a WWW in front URL: http://www.domain.com/benefits Any advice will be highly appreciated. Thanks, Athos
On-Page Optimization | | athosk0 -
Too Many On-Page Links
I recently took on a website design client and ran his website through a battery of tests using Pro to take a look at the crawl errors. One that seems to stump me is the error "Too many On-Page links" concerning his blog. (http://franksdesigns.com/wp/blog) This is the first time I've seen this error and am rather confused. The report says there are 104 links on this page. However, I'm having trouble grasping this concept or finding the 104 links. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!
On-Page Optimization | | WebLadder0