undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Case Studies
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • MozCon

      Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • Case Studies

      Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. On-Page Optimization
  4. Best Practice for Deleting Pages

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Best Practice for Deleting Pages

On-Page Optimization
7
15
6.2k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • Trupanion
    Trupanion last edited by Mar 15, 2011, 4:28 PM

    What is the best SEO practice for deleting pages?  We have a section in our website with Employee bios, and when the employee leaves we need to remove their page.

    How should we do this?

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • Trupanion
      Trupanion last edited by Jun 21, 2011, 3:50 PM Jun 21, 2011, 3:50 PM

      What we decided to do was a process for each deletion along with setting up a 301 redirect for any missing or incorrect bio to our Bio's home page.

      First, we will remove the bio from the XML sitemap and resubmit the sitemaps.

      Second, we wait a couple of days then delete the actual bio page from our site.

      So far this seems to be going alright.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • KeriMorgret
        KeriMorgret last edited by Jun 21, 2011, 3:25 PM Jun 21, 2011, 3:25 PM

        Brent, we'd be interested in hearing what you chose to do in the case with the employee bios, and if you encountered anything unexpected.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • topic:timeago_earlier,3 months
        • moldybacon
          moldybacon last edited by Mar 15, 2011, 8:30 PM Mar 15, 2011, 8:29 PM

          I'd just 301 it to your homepage, seriously doubt it would be worth the effort doing anything else unless this employee was famous and getting links from all around the web.

          If you must, you could always do what others have suggested and write a nice "no longer working with us (content rich page) " and 301 all past employees pages to it.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • dlrPaul
            dlrPaul @Trupanion last edited by Mar 15, 2011, 7:32 PM Mar 15, 2011, 7:32 PM

            I agree that it would serve little or no positive gain in terms of SEO, however, for usability and customer friendliness it should be a win-win.

            Without our principles, where would our industry be? 😉

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • NickPateman81
              NickPateman81 @Trupanion last edited by Mar 15, 2011, 4:54 PM Mar 15, 2011, 4:53 PM

              I think that's a great idea! Having a custom 404 for deleted employees would be great for branding purposes and general web 2.0 friendliness - I'm sure SEOmoz would agree.

              However from a strictly SEO point of view, removing the content and replacing it with 404esque material wouldn't help. However my comment(s) is pretty much a moot point given that there is almost certainly no SEO value on this page anyway. But I guess I'm just a principles kind of guy.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • dlrPaul
                dlrPaul @Trupanion last edited by Mar 15, 2011, 4:50 PM Mar 15, 2011, 4:50 PM

                Why don't you 301 to either the main bio entry page or create a page for deleted empoyees (kinda like a custom 404) and update your sitemap. That way no benefit is lost and anyone landing on the page from say an external link, will not get frustrated.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • shandaman
                  shandaman @Trupanion last edited by Mar 15, 2011, 4:49 PM Mar 15, 2011, 4:49 PM

                  This is why I suggested the Google webmaster tools.

                  Bing has a similar tool aswell.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Goetzman
                    Goetzman last edited by Mar 15, 2011, 4:46 PM Mar 15, 2011, 4:46 PM

                    Any negatives to using 301 on something like this?

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • NickPateman81
                      NickPateman81 @Trupanion last edited by Mar 15, 2011, 4:50 PM Mar 15, 2011, 4:43 PM

                      Hey Brent,

                      Bing and Google won't see a 404 if you redirect. There also wouldn't be an issue with duplicate content - what exactly are you referring to here?

                      Speaking of 404s... your avatar is doing one.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Trupanion
                        Trupanion @NickPateman81 last edited by Mar 15, 2011, 4:41 PM Mar 15, 2011, 4:41 PM

                        I would rather delete the page, but I just hate having Google/Bing seeing 404s for a while.  I would redirect but don't want to duplicate content pages.

                        NickPateman81 shandaman dlrPaul 5 Replies Last reply Mar 15, 2011, 7:32 PM Reply Quote 0
                        • NickPateman81
                          NickPateman81 @shandaman last edited by Mar 15, 2011, 4:41 PM Mar 15, 2011, 4:40 PM

                          There's always a way. Perhaps I would unlink it from the employee bios and whack on a noindex,follow meta tag to ensure it still passes rank if it was being linked to. This way users would never find it.

                          But more often than not I would just 301 unless for some reason there was a bunch of PageRank that would get lost in a redirect to an irrelevant(ish) page.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • shandaman
                            shandaman @NickPateman81 last edited by Mar 15, 2011, 4:37 PM Mar 15, 2011, 4:37 PM

                            Normally I would agree Nick but he already stated the employees have left the company, leaving content about them on the site is not proper business.

                            NickPateman81 1 Reply Last reply Mar 15, 2011, 4:40 PM Reply Quote 0
                            • NickPateman81
                              NickPateman81 last edited by Jun 21, 2011, 3:51 PM Mar 15, 2011, 4:35 PM

                              It sounds like it's just a simple case of deletion? In this case, set up a 301 redirect so that it points to the employee bios 'home' page. That way any links that were pointing to the removed page will have their 'juice' moved to a page that does exist. Although with the content not being the same, the amount of PageRank passed is dubious but still worth doing.

                              If you do a 301 then you wouldn't have to worry about updating HTML sitemaps. But Bing does openly admit that they hate untidy XML sitemaps (i.e. URLs that include 301s, 302s, 404s etc) so I would clean that up - and probably do the same for Google too while I'm at it.

                              Personally, as an SEO (with varying degrees of tunnel vision) I wouldn't want to ever delete content.

                              shandaman Trupanion 2 Replies Last reply Mar 15, 2011, 4:41 PM Reply Quote 1
                              • shandaman
                                shandaman last edited by Mar 15, 2011, 4:31 PM Mar 15, 2011, 4:31 PM

                                Remove it and also update your sitemap to reflect the change. I know in Google webmaster tools it will allow you to block certain pages from now being crawled.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • 1 / 1
                                1 out of 15
                                • First post
                                  1/15
                                  Last post

                                Got a burning SEO question?

                                Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                                Start my free trial


                                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.

                                • See all categories

                                Related Questions

                                • mbmozmb

                                  What is the best meta description for Category Pages, Tag Pages and Main Article?

                                  Hi, I want to index all my categories and tags. But I fear about duplicating the meta description. for example: I have a tag name "Learn Stock Market", a category name "Learning", and a main article "What is Stock Market". What is your suggestion for meta description of these three pages that looks great for seo google?

                                  On-Page Optimization | Jun 9, 2020, 12:59 PM | mbmozmb
                                  0
                                • tprg

                                  Home page and category page target same keyword

                                  Hi there, Several of our websites have a common problem - our main target keyword for the homepage is also the name of a product category we have within the website. There are seemingly two solutions to this problem, both of which not ideal: Do not target the keyword with the homepage. However, the homepage has the most authority and is our best shot at getting ranked for the main keyword. Reword and "de-optimise" the category page, so it doesn't target the keyword. This doesn't work well from UX point of view as the category needs to describe what it is and enable visitors to navigate to it. Anybody else gone through a similar conundrum? How did you end up going about it? Thanks Julian

                                  On-Page Optimization | Mar 20, 2014, 12:39 PM | tprg
                                  0
                                • mattdinbrooklyn

                                  Duplicate Content on Event Pages

                                  My client has a pretty popular service of event listings and, in hope of gathering more events, they opened up the platform to allow users to add events. This works really well for them and they are able to garner a lot more events this way. The major problem I'm finding is that many event coordinators and site owners will take the copy from their website and copy and paste it, duplicating a lot of the content. We have editor picks that contain a lot of unique content but the duplicate content scares me. It hasn't hurt our page ranking (we have a page ranking of 7) but I'm wondering if this is something that we should address. We don't have the manpower to eliminate all the duplication but if we cut down the duplication would we experience a significant advantage over people posting the same event?

                                  On-Page Optimization | Oct 18, 2013, 7:01 PM | mattdinbrooklyn
                                  0
                                • Web3Marketing87

                                  Hey guys! I was looking at adding the H1 tag lower on the page than the H2 tag because I want the top bit to be a call to action. Is this proper practice?

                                  Hey guys! I was looking at adding the H1 tag lower on the page than the H2 tag because I want the top bit to be a call to action. Is this proper practice?

                                  On-Page Optimization | Jan 20, 2013, 10:02 PM | Web3Marketing87
                                  0
                                • MarieA

                                  301 redirects from several sub-pages to one sub-page

                                  Hi! I have 14 sub-pages i deleted earlier today. But ofcourse Google can still find them, and gives everyone that gives them a go a 404 error. I have come to the understading that this wil hurt the rest of my site, at least as long as Google have them indexed. These sub-pages lies in 3 different folders, and i want to redirect them to a sub-page in a folder number 4. I have already an htaccess file, but i just simply cant get it to work! It is the same file as i use for redirecting trafic from mydomain.no to www.mydomain.no, and i have tried every kind of variation i can think of with the sub-pages. Has anyone perhaps had the same problem before, or for any other reason has the solution, and can help me with how to compose the htaccess file? 🙂 You have to excuse me if i'm using the wrong terms, missing something i should have seen under water while wearing a blindfold, or i am misspelling anything. I am neither very experienced with anything surrounding seo or anything else that has with internet to do, nor am i from an englishspeaking country. Hope someone here can light up my path 🙂 Thats at least something you can say in norwegian...

                                  On-Page Optimization | Feb 23, 2012, 5:57 PM | MarieA
                                  1
                                • 77Agency

                                  URL best practices, use folders or not ?

                                  Hi I have a question about URLs. Client have all URL written after domain and have only one / slash in all URLs. Is this best practice or i need to use categories,folders? Thanks

                                  On-Page Optimization | Dec 15, 2011, 7:30 PM | 77Agency
                                  0
                                • drewschmaltz

                                  Category Pages with Sub-Categories

                                  The image will explain it all...  Each category page starts on the subject of the first sub-category page.  This happens twice (well actually 3 times since this section of the site is called showroom and it starts on the tab mowers). Is this a terrible approach?  If so, how could a site like this be better navigation-ally organized. cat-subcat.png

                                  On-Page Optimization | May 10, 2011, 5:14 PM | drewschmaltz
                                  0
                                • MeghanPrudencio

                                  Would it be bad to change the canonical URL to the most recent page that has duplicate content, or should we just 301 redirect to the new page?

                                  Is it bad to change the canonical URL in the tag, meaning does it lose it's stats? If we add a new page that may have duplicate content, but we want that page to be indexed over the older pages, should we just change the canonical page or redirect from the original canonical page? Thanks so much! -Amy

                                  On-Page Optimization | Mar 8, 2011, 9:32 PM | MeghanPrudencio
                                  0

                                Get started with Moz Pro!

                                Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                                Start my free trial
                                Products
                                • Moz Pro
                                • Moz Local
                                • Moz API
                                • Moz Data
                                • STAT
                                • Product Updates
                                Moz Solutions
                                • SMB Solutions
                                • Agency Solutions
                                • Enterprise Solutions
                                Free SEO Tools
                                • Domain Authority Checker
                                • Link Explorer
                                • Keyword Explorer
                                • Competitive Research
                                • Brand Authority Checker
                                • Local Citation Checker
                                • MozBar Extension
                                • MozCast
                                Resources
                                • Blog
                                • SEO Learning Center
                                • Help Hub
                                • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                                • How-to Guides
                                • Moz Academy
                                • API Docs
                                About Moz
                                • About
                                • Team
                                • Careers
                                • Contact
                                Why Moz
                                • Case Studies
                                • Testimonials
                                Get Involved
                                • Become an Affiliate
                                • MozCon
                                • Webinars
                                • Practical Marketer Series
                                • MozPod
                                Connect with us

                                Contact the Help team

                                Join our newsletter
                                Moz logo
                                © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                                • Accessibility
                                • Terms of Use
                                • Privacy

                                Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.