How to mitigate impact of retiring 20,000 old URLs from the previous website version (migration was in 2015)
-
Hello!
So, we migrated our website in 2015 to the "new version" and we now have 20,000 old URLs that we'd like to officially retire. the only traffic coming to these pages is obviously from backlinks pointing at our site.
How do i gauge the hit that our website will take once we retire these URLs?
Is there a tool that will allow me to look at referral traffic numbers per URL so that i know how much traffic we'll be losing?
any advice would be helpful!
thanks!
yael
-
So as I mentioned I would never delete a page without a redirect (even if that is a redirect to the homepage). If you do that, there will be a minimal amount of authority that you lose. There's no way to know exactly how much, but it should be marginal.
As for the referral traffic, I mentioned how to measure that above. But again with a 301 redirect, you will keep that traffic and if it is still relevant traffic, it should still add to your bottom line.
-
Hi NorthStarInbound, thanks for your response.
By "retiring" i mean deleting. They're old URLs that we'd like to get rid of and just let the new pages stand on their own.
But we would be giving up the authority that those pages have accumulated. The question is, how much authority is at stake? How large of a hit are we going to take? How can we measure this?
Any advice is helpful! Thanks, yael
-
What do you mean by "retiring"? Is there another page that you could redirect to so you don't lose the authority those backlinks are providing?
As for seeing how much referral traffic you could lose, you can use Google Analytics for that. Go to Behavior > Site Content > Landing Pages. Then in the secondary dimension, go to Acquisition > Medium.
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
-
Delay to rank for authority website versus new website
Hello, I have a website that has been existing for years. How long does it take if I have a good content on a page for it to rank ? I read here and that that it can take 4 to 6 months but it never says if it is for a brand new website or a old website that has an authority and some links. I also read that some people publish content and rank within a week on competitive keywords. So who is right, what is there to read in between the lines ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
If I block a URL via the robots.txt - how long will it take for Google to stop indexing that URL?
If I block a URL via the robots.txt - how long will it take for Google to stop indexing that URL?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Gabriele_Layoutweb0 -
Website redesign, some urls are no longer available. How do I mitigate ranking drops?
I am currently refreshing my WordPress business website. I used a theme that had a built in portfolio option. I wanted to strip down the bloat and move to something more simple to better articulate my message. Upon switching themes I will loose my urls for my portfolio projects. I should have never used this built in function but it did exactly what I needed and wanted here is an example. http://silvernailwebdesign.com/portfolio-view/central-jersey-claims-association-wordpress-consulting/ Now on my staging site these portfolio pieces have vanished and the urls are indexed with google. I could create posts and recreate the portfolio pieces however the problem with the url is the /portfolio-view/ portion. I cannot recreate the part of the url. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I receive some traffic through the portfolio pages but not much, however, I do not want to loose any traffic. I am looking for a strategy that will solve this url issue with WordPress. I have about 10 separate portfolio pages with this url issue.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | donsilvernail0 -
Can I use the old website content on the new website, after deleting it from the server?
My website nowwhatstudio.com hit by google pure spam and google applied manual spam action to the website. I create new website (nowwhatmoments.com) with the same content from the old spam action website (nowwhatstudio.com). As google removed my old website content from search indexed. Can I use the same content for a new website? If I delete my old website from the server, after that Can I use the old website content for a new website? Or Can make edits the old website content and make it 80% original for a new website?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bondhoward0 -
Coupon websites as affiliates
We recently started using shareasale.com for affiliate marketing and have received literally hundreds of applications from coupon websites wanting to become affiliates. Most we have not approved as the quality of the sites is poor. However, a few sites seem more legitimate. Could having these types of sites harm our seo in any way?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | unikey1 -
Canonical url issue
Canonical url issue My site https://ladydecosmetic.com on seomoz crawl showing duplicate page title, duplicate page content errors. I have downloaded the error reports csv and checked. From the report, The below url contains duplicate page content.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | trixmediainc
https://www.ladydecosmetic.com/unik-colours-lipstick-caribbean-peach-o-27-item-162&category_id=40&brands=66&click=brnd And other duplicate urls as per report are,
https://www.ladydecosmetic.com/unik-colours-lipstick-plum-red-o-14-item-157&category_id=40&click=colorsu&brands=66 https://www.ladydecosmetic.com/unik-colours-lipstick-plum-red-o-14-item-157&category_id=40 https://www.ladydecosmetic.com/unik-colours-lipstick-plum-red-o-14-item-157&category_id=40&brands=66&click=brnd But on every these url(all 4) I have set canonical url. That is the original url and an existing one(not 404). https://www.ladydecosmetic.com/unik-colours-lipstick-caribbean-peach-o-27-item-162&category_id=0 Then how this issues are showing like duplicate page content. Please give me an answer ASAP.0 -
URL for New Product
Hi, We run an established website (mindflash.com) selling online training software. We are getting ready to launch a new section of the site where our users can sell their own online training programs. This will be branded as the 'marketplace'. This section will have a main page, category pages, tag pages, search and individual course pages. In our URL structure, I'd love to target the word 'training courses' but I don't want to neglect the product brand either. Is it better to use /training-courses in the marketplace urls or to use /marketplace? Or is it better to use both like /marketplace-training-courses or /marketplace/training-courses? Option 1: Example main section page: mindflash.com/training-courses Example category page: mindflash.com/training-courses/software-training Option 2: Example main section page: mindflash.com/marketplace Example category page: mindflash.com/marketplace/software-training Option 3: Example main section page: mindflash.com/marketplace-training-courses Example category page: mindflash.com/marketplace-training-courses/software-training Option 4: Example main section page: mindflash.com/marketplace/training-courses Example category page: mindflash.com/marketplace/training-courses/software-training Which option is better and why?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mindflash0 -
Website Is In Tables
Our website www.accupos.com is mainly created with TABLES, which I've heard is a practice from Neanderthal times. Nevertheless, it is my job as the new Dir. of Marketing to SEO the hell out of it. Would you recommend converting the ENTIRE website into Divs or changing the current Tables situation? Or is this not a big deal for SEO? The site APPEARS fine, but I want to get our keywords ranked as well as possible, putting my time in the most efficient places (like link building!). How much of a high priority might this Tables fix be? We are also running an AdWords campaign spending LOTS every month. Please Moz me! Derek
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DerekM880