What to do with outdated (but ranking) content?
-
I'm SEOing for a theatre. We've got show pages that rank when searching for the business, but are outdated as the shows are from past years. The pages aren't accessible at all from the site now, but still exist in domain and are linked to by google.
If you search the business, the results are:
1. [biz name]
2. [biz name] - tickets
3-6. outdated shows
Should these pages be left up, or taken down and redirected home?
Would there be any seo boost to the homepage from 301ing them home, or do you think it'd be more beneficial to have more results available as entry points into the site?
-
The action I would recommend would depend on two factors: are there backlinks to the page, and how frequently are the links used (check Google Analytics).
If you have a page without any backlinks that is rarely used, then I would allow the 404 to occur. If you have a page with link juice and is frequently used, I would make an effort to ensure user's are happy with what they find when clicking to the page, otherwise they may bounce off my site. In this case I would rebuild the content.
404s are a natural part of the internet. Content is moved and removed over time. It is not necessarily a bad thing for a 404 to occur if your site is prepared to handle it (i.e. your 404 page is helpful and friendly).The only point I am making is some webmasters view 404s as an issue with their site that must be resolved, and that is not the case. You should be fully aware of any 404 links and be able to adjust where necessary.
-
Thanks for a great answer. There are not links to these pages on the website, only from search engine results. While I thought the pages could be restored, I'm realizing now they don't mix with a new site update, so it is either:
a) remake the content.
b) let them 404.
c) 301 redirect.
You think it would be better to let them go to a useful 404 page than to redirect?
-
I wouldn't take the pages down, but I'd alter them to prominently display a message that the show is no longer running with a nice big call to action to visit the homepage, or whatever action makes sense for the theater's objectives.
With this set up you still get all the traffic from your higher authority pages, and your visitors know what they're looking at and what a good next step is,
-
It will be beneficial for both Ryan.
-
Make sure your site's 404 page is friendly and helpful. The message should be something along the lines of "we are sorry the page you are looking for cannot be found" along with links to your home page and other helpful pages. A search box should ideally be provided. Additionally a panel which displays links to your site's top pages or most interesting content.
Your options are:
1. If there are links to the outdated show pages and the pages aren't accessible, you may want to restore the old pages. This will keep users and search engines happy. The links will continue to offer your site value.
2. If there are links to the outdated show pages and the pages have been deleted and not recoverable, you can 301 redirect the pages to the most relevant page on your site. Perhaps another show from the same director, or a show of the same type. This will allow your site to retain the link value within it's DA.
3. If there are not links to the outdated show pages, I would recommend allowing the pages to 404.
If you perform any action other then the first, then the rankings #3-6 will disappear. The search engine crawlers will recognize the pages are no longer available and remove the results.
-
For the users' sake of not being taken to old content, or will that boost the homepage's ranking/authority?
-
You should 301 them all to the Homepage.
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 personal change coach not ranking for his own name, exact match
The term is tim hallbom The new website is TimHallbom.com I was under the impression that someone could take over rank for their own name. Let me know what we're doing wrong. Thanks.
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
Other websites copy content and giving a link back
Hi, I've just noticed a few back links in Google Search Console, I was excited. But when I saw the backlinks, 2 other websites that had completely copied my content and then gave a backlink to my website. Is this bad for SEO and would google penalise my website for this?
Link Building | | thinkLukeSEO1 -
Ranking Riddle: Too many anchor text links, or not enough of the right ones???
This question is about one of my ecommerce sites (www.BestDryingRack.com) which is ranking really well for one of it's money words, and not at all for the other. See the attached screenshot for a quick overview of the riddle we are facing.... Looking at the "Anchor Text" tab in my MOZ Campaign or in Open Site Explorer would lead you to think that I have WAY too many links with my #1 money phrase. (clothes drying rack, or laundry drying rack, as they are synonyms). And since my product page doesn't rank at all for that keyword, that's what I thought too. (My home page does show up on page 3 or 4 when Googling clothes drying rack) On the other hand, my #2 money phrase (umbrella clothesline, or outdoor umbrella clothesline) has it's product page ranking quite well in the middle of the first page of Google results. Digging deeper into the links spreadsheet from Open Site Explorer shows that most of the links are NOFOLLOW (which means they don't really count, right?) As the screenshot shows, here is the breakdown of links that count: FOLLOW links with Brand and URL anchor text totals 17 FOLLOW links with #1 money phrase anchor text totals 10, with only 1 to proper product page FOLLOW links with #2 money phrase anchor text totals 3, with all 3 to proper product page So the riddle is... Can we improve the ranking of the #1 money phrase by just getting a small number of matching anchor text links to the proper page? (making it like #2's situation) Or do we also need to get rid of some of the 9 links with the #1 anchor text that are pointing to the home page? (since the home is outranking the proper product page for this phrase) BDR-anchors-040614.jpg
Link Building | | GregB1230 -
About Duplicate Content
if i share our blog to multiple document sharing site in form of pdf.it is spamming or not..?..if yes what is the drawback?
Link Building | | afycon0 -
Sites Ranked Again - Post Penguin SEO Help
Got destroyed by Penguin because of questionable links. I had most of the links removed and my sites have been restored for the most part - though lower than they previously ranking for keywords. What is the best SEO strategy to move up in rank? Link Building strategy? Is there a penalty for domains that have keywords in them?
Link Building | | veed230 -
Best way to get more keywords to rank
I have a flash site and have been very successful at getting my keywords that are in my site title and also in the text of my page to rank well. What is the best way to get additional keywords to rank without increasing the text on your page. Is it just getting more anchor-text backlinks pointing your site with the new keywords in the text?
Link Building | | photoseo10 -
Last week the Google Australia ranking for one of my keyword was 10, this week it slipped to 20\. How come ?
Search Engine: Google Australia (organic) Keyword: Staging Hire Previously Ranked: 20 After several article and link submissions it jumped to 10. But in just one week slipped back to 20. Same thing happened with few other keywords too. Why?
Link Building | | i-kreo0 -
Can changing our links page make our rankings drop through the floor?
Hi all, When I first started at my current job, most of the link building (aside from submitting to free directories left, right and centre) was replying to every spammy reciprocal email and adding them to our links page! Now we're all a bit wiser about such matters (thanks SEOMoz!), I want to get our links page turned into something actually useful. My plan was to get it neatly categorised, with recommendations, cut out unrelated links that would be useless to visitors and call it something like "Our Friends" I thought this might be useful for future link building efforts, but in its current state, it's a complete mess. However, I am worried about cutting out a lot of links if they have been reciprocal ones. Are the sort of sites that would be sending typical spammy link exchange emails for window installation in NY likely to notice our UK education site taking away their link six months later and take away ours? If they do, will losing links from these sites harm us? Perhaps more importantly, is my plan a terrible idea in the first place? Look forward to hearing from y'all!
Link Building | | TEFLScot0