Dealing with 404 pages
-
I built a blog on my root domain while I worked on another part of the site at .....co.uk/alpha I was really careful not to have any links go to alpha - but it seems google found and indexed it. The problem is that part of alpha was a copy of the blog - so now soon we have a lot of duplicate content. The /alpha part is now ready to be taken over to the root domain, the initial plan was to then delete /alpha. But now that its indexed I'm worried that Ill have all these 404 pages. I'm not sure what to do.. I know I can just do a 301 redirect for all those pages to go to the other ones in case a link comes on but I need to delete those pages as the server is already very slow. Or does a 301 redirect mean that I don't need those pages anymore? Will those pages still get indexed by google as separate pages? Please assist.
-
after a 301 redirect can I delete the pages and the databases/folders associated with them?
Yes. Think of a 301 redirect like mail forwarding. If you have an address, 1000 main street and then move to a new address you would leave a forward order (e.g. 301 redirect) with the post office. Once that is done, you can bulldozer the house (e.g.. delete the webpage/database) and the mail should still be forwarded properly.
How does one create a 301 redirect?
The method of creating a 301 redirect varies based on your server setup. If you have a LAMP setup with cPanel, there is a Redirect tool. Otherwise I would suggest contacting your host and ask how to create a redirect based on your particular setup.
-
Ryan,
Two things.
First - after a 301 redirect can I delete the pages and the databases/folders associated with them?
Second - How does one create a 301 redirect?
-
Hi Ryan,
Agree with you, but I thought to provide alternate solution to the problem. I know it is difficult and not chosen one.
But as I said that if he can't get any traffic from it then and then only it can delete the pages for index. Plus as he told earlier in question that mistakenly alpha folder was indexed so lines as per you said in the comment "That tool was designed to remove content which is damaging to businesses such as when confidential or personal information is indexed by mistake." and Its contradictory statement too "The indexed content are pages you want in the index but simply have the wrong URL - The wrong URL means the different page.
Anyways will definitely go with your solution but sometimes two options helps you to choose better one.
Thanks
-
Semil, your answer is a working solution but I would like to share why it is not a best practice.
Once the /alpha pages were indexed you could have traffic on them. You cannot possibly know who has linked to those pages, e-mailed links, bookmarked them, etc. By providing a simple 301 the change will be completely seamless to users. All their links and bookmarks will still work. Additionally if any website did link to your /alpha pages, you will retain the link.
The site will also benefit because it is already indexed by Google. You will not have to wait for Google to index your pages. This means more traffic for the site.
The 301 is very quick and easy to implement. If you are simply moving from the /alpha directory to your main site then a single 301 redirect can cover your entire site.
I will offer a simple best practice of SEO (my belief which not everyone agrees with) which I do my best to follow. NEVER EVER EVER use the robots.txt file unless you have exhausted every other possibility. The robots.txt file is an inferior solution that many people latch on to because it is quick and easy. In your case, there is no need to adjust your robots.txt file at all. The original poster stated an intention to delete the /alpha pages. Those pages will no longer exist. Why block URLs which don't exist? It doesn't offer any benefit.
Also, it makes no sense to use the Google removal tool. That tool was designed to remove content which is damaging to businesses such as when confidential or personal information is indexed by mistake. The indexed content are pages you want in the index but simply have the wrong URL. The 301 redirect will allow your pages to remain in the index and for the URL to be properly updated. In order for the 301 to work correctly, you would need to NOT block the /alpha pages with robots.txt.
The solution you shared would work, but it is not as friendly all around.
-
Whoops! Thanks for correcting my answer...
-
The reason behind not using 301 is alpha is not a page or folder you want to create for your users so I don't want to put 301. Its indexed that's it. Are you getting any traffic from it ?
No, then why you need to redirect. Remove the page and ask search engine to remove that page from index. That is all.
-
Thanks Dan,
Is there a way of blocking an entire folder or do I have to add each link?
-
How can I ask them to remove it from webmaster? How can I ask everything on the /alpha folder not to be indexed - or do I have to write each link out?
Why do you think my case isn't good for 301 redirects?
-
You have to be very careful from the start, but now Google indexed your alpha. So dont worry about the thing.
Using 301 is something which I dont like to do on your case. Ask google to remove that urls from indexing from GWT, and put robots.txt to prevent alpha to be indexed.
Thanks,
-
You can perform the 301 redirect and you will not need those pages anymore. Using the redirect would be a superior SEO solution over using the robots.txt file. Since the content is already indexed, it will stay indexed and Google will update each page over the next 30 days as it crawls your site.
If you block /alpha with robots.txt, Google will still retain the pages in their index, users will experience 404s and your new pages wont start to be properly indexed until Google drops the existing pages which takes a while. The redirect is better for everyone.
-
Hi
If you do not want them in the index you should block them in your robots.txt file like so:
-
-
-
-
- -
-
-
-
User-agent: *
Allow: /
Disallow: /alpha
-Dan
PS - Some documentation on robots.txt
-
-
-
-
- -
-
-
-
EDIT: I left my answer, but don't listen to it. Do what Ryan says
-
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
-
Contact Page
I'm currently designing a new website for my wife, who just started her own wedding/engagement photography business. I'm trying to build it as SEO friendly as possible, but she brought up an idea that she likes that I've never tried before. Typically on all the websites I've ever built, I've had a dedicated contact page that has the typical contact form. Because that contact form on a wedding photographers website is almost as important as selling a product on an e-commerce site, she brought up the possibility of putting the contact form in the footer site-wide (minus maybe the homepage) rather than having a dedicated contact page. And in the navigation, where you have links such as "Home", "Portfolio", "About", "Prices", "Contact", etc. the "Contact" navigation item would transfer the user to the bottom of the page they are on rather than a new page. Any thoughts on which way would be better for a case like this, and any positives/negatives for doing it each way? One thought I had is that if it's in the footer rather than it's own page, it would lose it's search-ability as it's technically duplicate content on each page. But then again, that's what a footer is. Thanks, Mickey
Technical SEO | | shannmg10 -
Does adding subcategory pages to an commerce site limit the link juice to the product pages?
I have a client who has an online outdoor gear company. He mostly sells high end outdoor gear (like ski jackets, vests, boots, etc) at a deep discount. His store currently only resides on Ebay. So we're building him an online store from scratch. I'm trying to determine the best site architecture and wonder if we should include subcategory pages. My issue is that I think the subcategory pages might be good from a user experience, but it'll add an additional layer between the homepage and the product pages. The problem is that I think a lot of user's might be searching for the product name to see if they can find a better deal, and my client's site would be perfect for them. So I really want to rank well for the product pages, but I'm nervous that the subcategory pages will limit the link juice of the product pages. Home --> SubCategory --> Product List --> Product Detail Home --> Men's Ski Clothing --> Men's Ski Jack --> North Face Mt Everest Jacket Should I keep the SubCategory page "Men's Ski Clothing" if it helps usability? On a separate note, the SubCategory pages would have some head keyword terms, but I don't think that he could rank well for these terms anytime soon. However, they would be great pages / terms to rank for in the long term. Should this influence the decision?
Technical SEO | | Santaur0 -
Switchboard Tags - Multiple desktop pages pointing to one mobile page
I have recently started to implement switchboard tags to connect our mobile and desktop pages, and to ensure that our mobile pages show up in rankings for mobile users. Because our desktop site is much deeper in content than our mobile site, there are a number of desktop pages we would like to have point to one mobile page. However, with the switchboard tags, this poses a problem because it requires multiple rel=canonical tags to be placed on the one mobile page. I'm assuming this will either confuse the search engines, or they will choose to ignore the rel=canonical tag altogether. Any ideas on how to approach this situation other than creating an equivalent mobile version of every desktop page or implementing a user agent detection redirect?
Technical SEO | | JBlank0 -
Top pages give " page not found"
A lot of my top pages point to images in a gallery on my site. When I click on the url under the name of the jpg file I get an error page not found. For instance this link: http://www.fastingfotografie.nl/architectuur-landschap/single-gallery/10162327 Is this a problem? Thanks. Thomas. JkLej.png
Technical SEO | | thomasfasting0 -
Secondary Pages Indexed over Primary Page
I have 4 pages for a single product Each of the pages link to the Main page for that product Google is indexing the secondary pages above my preferred landing page How do I fix this?
Technical SEO | | Bucky0 -
Page MozRank and MozTrust 0 for Home Page, Makes No Sense?
Hey Mozzers! I'm a bit confused by a site that is showing a 0 for home page MozRank and MozTrust, while its subdomain and root domain metrics look decent (relatively). I am posting images of the page metrics and subdomain metrics to show the disparity: http://i.imgur.com/3i0jq.png http://i.imgur.com/ydfme.png Is it normal to see this type of disparity? The home page has very little inbound links, but the big goose egg has me wondering if there is something else going on. Has anyone else experienced this? Or, does anyone have speculation as to why a home page would have a 0 MozRank while the subdomain metrics look much better? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | ClarityVentures0 -
Webmaster Tools 404 Errors Pages Never Created
Recently, 196 404 errors appeared in my WMT account for pages that were never created on my site. Question: Any thoughts on how they got there (i.e. WMT bug, tactic by competitor)? Question: Thoughts on impact if any? Question: Thoughts on resolution?
Technical SEO | | Gyi0 -
Removing Duplicate Pages
Hi everyone. I'm sure this falls under novice seo question. But how do i remove duplicate pages from my site. I have not created the pages per say. Their may be a an internal link on a page that links to the page causing the duplication. Do i remove the internal link here is a sample of a duplicate page http://www.ticketplatform.com/about/ticket-industry-news-details/11-03-07/Ticket_Platform_to_help_LilysProject_com_to_raise_money_for_ALYN_Hospital_in_Israel.aspx?ReturnURL=%2fabout%2fticket-industry-news.aspx http://www.ticketplatform.com/about/ticket-industry-news-details/11-03-07/Ticket_Platform_to_help_LilysProject_com_to_raise_money_for_ALYN_Hospital_in_Israel.aspx?ReturnURL=%2fhome.aspx&CntPageID=1 I know the url is way too long. working on it Thanks for your feedbacks.
Technical SEO | | ticketplatform0