I have some antiquated pages which no longer exist...Google somehow picked them (they were only on my website for like 30 minutes) and now because they are gone and I am returning 404 errors my SEO has tanked on me.
Is it better to 301 redirect to the homepage? How do I drop a web page and notify Google to remove it from their listings and more importantly start focusing on my existing web pages?
SEO: 301 better than a 404
Moderator: General Moderators
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alex.barylski
- DevNet Evangelist
- Posts: 6267
- Joined: Tue Dec 21, 2004 5:00 pm
- Location: Winnipeg
Re: SEO: 301 better than a 404
Give them a sitemap
Real programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.
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alex.barylski
- DevNet Evangelist
- Posts: 6267
- Joined: Tue Dec 21, 2004 5:00 pm
- Location: Winnipeg
Re: SEO: 301 better than a 404
ahh yes...forgot about that one...
Thanks i'll try it.
Thanks i'll try it.
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malcolmboston
- DevNet Resident
- Posts: 1826
- Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2003 1:09 pm
- Location: Middlesbrough, UK
Re: SEO: 301 better than a 404
301's are the way to go in terms of SEO and is very useful.
for example google see's that most sites have 2 home pages: http://www.example.com/ and http://www.example.com/index.html
you are actually being penalised by google for duplicate content, if you do a 301 from index.html to the domain name, all link juice will go with the redirect and you will no longer have a duplicate home page in the eyes of google.
I would say it is infinitely better than a 404 which serves no other purpose but to annoy potential customers.
for example google see's that most sites have 2 home pages: http://www.example.com/ and http://www.example.com/index.html
you are actually being penalised by google for duplicate content, if you do a 301 from index.html to the domain name, all link juice will go with the redirect and you will no longer have a duplicate home page in the eyes of google.
I would say it is infinitely better than a 404 which serves no other purpose but to annoy potential customers.