When Is It Good To Redirect Pages on Your Site to Another Page?

[ProjectLabs]

Suppose you have a page on your site that discusses a topic that is similar to another page but targets a different keyword phrase. The page has medium quality content, no inbound links, and the attracts little traffic. Should you 301 redirect the page to a stronger page?

[aroach]

Hey there

It depends on a couple of factors, I'd say. Is this a forum where users have made the content, or is it a discussion/post that has covered a similar topic?

I get the feeling it's a variation of the latter, and if that's the case, I don't think you need to redirect it at all, namely for a couple of reasons:

1. It's site content, and a variation of a similar topic, which can be seen as "related" to the theme of your other discussion (assuming that's how your site works).

2. If the traffic isn't there in the first place, and hasn't taken off for some time - which includes no inbound links, external discussions and so on - then it's not going to be in the way of your other content.

I'd use the 301 if this is a duplicate issue, and you're worried that people won't find the real target of your campaign.

When you consider the themes for most sites, a lot of content is going to overlap and be very similar to other pieces. The Moz is a good example of that: so many blog posts with very similar themes; just variations of one another.

Hope this helps

[AlanBleiweiss]

If you have no long-term value you can identify for the page, yes, you can 301 redirect it if you want.  So that's the question - is there long-term value?

If so, then I'd keep it and work on building it up.