Redirecting to homepage ok?
-
I deleted a bunch of category pages (renamed mostly actually and thought they'd be auto redirected like my blog posts are but they weren't) so I used a plugin that reroutes any 404 page to the homepage. Is that the best thing to do in this situation? Google Webmasters says there are about 84 404-errors and this should get rid of those right? Is there anything SEO BAD about doing it this way?
-
Wow - thanks! I found a plugin for now but I will definitely save this info. I appreciate your help!
-
You will need FTP access to your root. If you do not have an .htaccess file, then you can create a text file, upload and then remove the .txt. Use Notepad or a similar application. If there is a file, be careful not to overwrite anything that is already there.
Create a new line that reads, for each page, and optionally use comments to keep track of your code
301 redirects
redirect 301 /old-category-page/ http://www.yourdomain.com/new-category-page/
redirect 301 /old-category2-page/ http://www.yourdomain.com/new-category2-page/Here's how that breaks down:
redirect 301 (the instruction that the page has moved)
/old-category-page/ (the original folder path and file name)
http://www.yourdomain.com/new-category-page/ (new path and file name)Save and upload.
If you are unsure about FTP to the root, contact your hosting provider. Hope this helps!
-
Thank you. I understand. I just need a tutorial on how to take a deleted URL and redirect it to the most relevant URL. I am a novice when it comes to HTML etc.
-
MIke is spot on and correct! Handling 404s should be a process in which you manually map one page to another, unless you have a large enterprise site and can setup server rules to handle the redirecting process.
For you, take the old category URL, and map it to the renamed category. Do this for each and every one. After you have done that, revisit GWT, and address the remaining 404s individually.
-
Alright, that is good to know. I deleted that plugin to stop the bulk redirects. I just don't know how to redirect the 404s since I already deleted them I don't know how to manipulate them.
Should I just create the category pages again? I suppose the URL would be the same right?
-
This is definitely NOT the best thing to do. Bulk redirects to the homepage will wind up killing a large chunk of the relevancy signals, link equity and traffic since you're not serving the most relevant alternative to your users. They should be redirected to their most relevant live counterpart. And using a plugin that redirects ALL 404s isn't good either since sometimes a 404 is useful. For example, how will you know if a link is broken if it can't 404? In this case, if you just renamed the categories... redirect the old URL to the renamed category it belongs to.
Take a look at Cyrus' blog post from the 18th How to Completely Ruin (or Save) Your Website with Redirects.
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
-
After HTTPS upgrade, should I change all internal links, or a general 301 redirect is better?
I recently upgraded to https. Of course most internal links of my old posts are still http. So I set up a 301 redirect in order to make the old link works. In terms od SEO this is good or it is better to update all the internal links to https, manually? In that case can I do it in batch with a search/replace command in the phmyadmin database? any other suggested method? thank you
On-Page Optimization | | micvitale0 -
Will changing a site from https to normal http have any SEO impact if we do automatic redirects?
We currently have a site which uses https and want to change to normal http only (for reasons unrelated to SEO). We were planning to do this with a change in our server configuration (we use Nginx, and can automatically redirect https to http). Our site has been around for approx 1 year, so there are links floating around in the Internet which will still be using https. These will be automatically redirected to http. What will be the impact on our SEO? I understand that our webmaster tools account may need to change...
On-Page Optimization | | michaelcho0 -
Www no longer redirects
Hi there, A while back I dropped the www from my domain. Everything redirected ok and I could still access my site using www and it would simply redirect to http://mysite This no longer seems to be occurring. I don't think I have changed anything? I don't believe I had anything in my htaccess however I am looking for some assistance in doing so. I've done a bit of reading but am not 100% confident! If anyone is interested, the url is http://cdkeyprices.com Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | MrPenguin0 -
302 redirect (temporary redirect)
Hello guys, I have a stupid problem, i guess you solved long time ago. After i crawl my website, i found out that i have 8k temporary redirect (302 redirect). All of them came from www.domain.com/enable-cookies, there are 8 k of this type. I guess i am not first one with magento having this problem. Could you explain what happen in fact? And more than that could you explain how to fix it? I bet people will find this thread important i will not be the last one with this problem Thank you in advance. With Respect, Andrei
On-Page Optimization | | Shanaki0 -
Looking for a few hours of consult from an on-page/redirection SEO guru.
Hi! I could post our question here, but I think we will need an hour or so of questions and answers. Anyone consider themselves an on-page guru or redirection strategy guru? Here is the breakdown: 1. We sell digital media. 2. Most of the pages that return for us in the serps are indexed Search Results pages. From the research we have done, these are our highest trafficked results, but also our lowest converters. We have hundreds of thousands of indexed and dynamic Search Result pages we need to deal with. 3. We are concerned about Panda eventually giving us issues with these indexed Search Pages. 4. We would like to 301 re-direct these indexed Search Results pages to applicable product pages. 5. Looking for advice on a strategy to do so which would include the best way to locate the pages we need to 301 in the SERPS, being careful that the 301 will help and not harm us, etc. Note, we are just looking for a couple of hours of discussion and guidance. We don't need a massive SEO analysis or anything. Just looking for input and guidance on this one particular issue. If you just want to answer here for free, hey, we won't complain, but are happy to pay for quality advice. PM if interested. Thanks! Craig
On-Page Optimization | | TheCraig0 -
Does Google Bias Against Homepages for Search Queries that are a Question?
If you are trying to rank for a keyword phrase that is a question (e.g. how to ___) does it matter if your page is the home page of your site or an article on your site? I suspect that Google would treat question search queries differently and would show preference for articles over a home page in most cases. An article would be more likely to satisfy the searcher by providing the answer to their question, whereas the home page usually doesn't provide specific answers. I looked at one keyword phrase that is a question and only 1 of the first 20 results was a home page. Any thoughts or experience with this?
On-Page Optimization | | Charlessipe0 -
Product links on homepage
Hi, I;m wondering if it really does aid SEO or even hinder it now to have lists of top selling products as links on the base of each page. This was recommended to us sometime ago by a consultant so we did it but is it outdated? I'm concerned it may penalise our pages now by creating too many links? opinions appreciated. wwww.gourmetdirect.com and scroll down to see what I mean
On-Page Optimization | | GourmetDirect0 -
301 redirect usage
I just wondering if using a lot of 301 redirects could hurt to my seo? We have site which have a lot of content with such links: title: This Is Title page url: www.site.com/This-Is-Title-page.html and we use for each page 301 redirect to remove capital letters in url: www.site.com/this-is-title-page.html Is this is good idea and not hurting to seo ? Thanks in advance
On-Page Optimization | | bele0