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Need to redirect pages from old site to new site. Is "NO FOLLOW" needed for old site pages?
Posted on 2014-11-21
Hello!
I've built a festival website that has a different theme each year. There's a main domain: festival.com and each year is on a subdomain: 2015.festival.com. This is the first time we are using the subdomains so the main domain has all of the festival content on it from last year. We will be reusing many of those pages on the new site.
What I've done so far is a 302 (temporary redirect) to subdomain. I do notice that the old site pages are still showing up in Google, so we've got a popup directing folks to the new site. I'm assuming that if I create pages on the subdomain with exact same URL's as main site, then those pages on the subdomain will start showing up on Google. Is this correct?
In addition to this, do I need to add "NO INDEX" to the main domain pages so that the subdomain pages can take precedence in Google?
This is all a bit hazy for me. So thanks for any help!
I've built a festival website that has a different theme each year. There's a main domain: festival.com and each year is on a subdomain: 2015.festival.com. This is the first time we are using the subdomains so the main domain has all of the festival content on it from last year. We will be reusing many of those pages on the new site.
What I've done so far is a 302 (temporary redirect) to subdomain. I do notice that the old site pages are still showing up in Google, so we've got a popup directing folks to the new site. I'm assuming that if I create pages on the subdomain with exact same URL's as main site, then those pages on the subdomain will start showing up on Google. Is this correct?
In addition to this, do I need to add "NO INDEX" to the main domain pages so that the subdomain pages can take precedence in Google?
This is all a bit hazy for me. So thanks for any help!
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19 Comments
Use a 301 on the old pages to the new pages then Google will eventually follow and index them
Don't use NO INDEX or NO FOLLOW, else you are telling Google to ignore them.
Don't use NO INDEX or NO FOLLOW, else you are telling Google to ignore them.
Active today
Okay,
I'm wrapping my head around this. And I understand now why NO INDEX or NO FOLLOW won't do. Thanks.
So I give the pages a 301, permanent, and direct to 2015.festival.com. So the next year will I have to do the same on the 2015.festival.com to redirect to 2016.festival.com?
Thank you for you help. This is scary stuff. The site has alot of link juice!
I'm wrapping my head around this. And I understand now why NO INDEX or NO FOLLOW won't do. Thanks.
So I give the pages a 301, permanent, and direct to 2015.festival.com. So the next year will I have to do the same on the 2015.festival.com to redirect to 2016.festival.com?
Thank you for you help. This is scary stuff. The site has alot of link juice!
Active today
I wouldn't use 301s here, even though it is the technically correct solution. The problem is that if you keep using 301s to redirect from past events to current, Google may eventually decide that you've got too many 301s happening and flag you for black hat practices (I do speak from experience).
It would be better for both you and Google to modify the old site so that there are prominent links and announcements about the current festival and let users navigate from there. If you are reusing pages from one year to the next, rel=canonical would be my preferred method of avoiding duplicate content penalties and keeping a sane number of 301s would be okay at that point.
It would be better for both you and Google to modify the old site so that there are prominent links and announcements about the current festival and let users navigate from there. If you are reusing pages from one year to the next, rel=canonical would be my preferred method of avoiding duplicate content penalties and keeping a sane number of 301s would be okay at that point.
Ermmm - did a quick check on what Matt Cutt's says and I (we) disagree
This is a once a year event
This is a once a year event
got too many 301s happeningonly really relevant where one redirect leads to another redirect - depending on the site indexing speed all the redirects should be done within a week a two. And that is it til the next year.
Active today
But if the chain continues?
2014 to 2015
Then
2014 to 2016
2015 to 2016
Then
2014 to 2017
2015 to 2017
2016 to 2017
It starts to look bad to the Google. Again, speaking from personal experience, your mileage may vary
2014 to 2015
Then
2014 to 2016
2015 to 2016
Then
2014 to 2017
2015 to 2017
2016 to 2017
It starts to look bad to the Google. Again, speaking from personal experience, your mileage may vary
Yeah but it's a year apart, would be a bit different if it was every week or month.
Many sites change from year to year - look at MS, constantly changing their structure
Many sites change from year to year - look at MS, constantly changing their structure
Active today
Actually, I do everything in my power to not look at MS :)
I'm happy to be wrong in this situation...
I'm happy to be wrong in this situation...
Tried doing some research on it and came up empty handed on best practices and I cannot see a problem with a yearly 301 but...
Maybe it would be better to use a sub folder for each year, and if someone is viewing content for the previous year/s have a bit ol' button saying click here for this years events.
This way you can keep old data, if it's relevant at all???
Also it retains more SEO juice from the main domain - remember sub domains are seen as seperate domains
Maybe it would be better to use a sub folder for each year, and if someone is viewing content for the previous year/s have a bit ol' button saying click here for this years events.
This way you can keep old data, if it's relevant at all???
Also it retains more SEO juice from the main domain - remember sub domains are seen as seperate domains
Active today
Okay,
You guys are making me nervous!
;)
What if I continue to just redirect the main domain to each new subdomain each year. There is actually an archive on the main site of past festivals where we link to the old sites.
And having those archives, is that some crazy duplicate content infraction as far as Google is concerned?
You guys are making me nervous!
;)
What if I continue to just redirect the main domain to each new subdomain each year. There is actually an archive on the main site of past festivals where we link to the old sites.
And having those archives, is that some crazy duplicate content infraction as far as Google is concerned?
Active today
Hi Gary,
We are keeping each year in a subfolder.
What we've done in the past is simply move the WordPress database and wp-content to a subdomain and then rebuild the main site again. We quickly realized that folks who'd linked to the site now would have 404's. So starting this year we are redirecting. But we still have all old sites archived in subdomains.
So does that make it better?
We are keeping each year in a subfolder.
What we've done in the past is simply move the WordPress database and wp-content to a subdomain and then rebuild the main site again. We quickly realized that folks who'd linked to the site now would have 404's. So starting this year we are redirecting. But we still have all old sites archived in subdomains.
So does that make it better?
Active today
To be perfectly honest, I think we are splitting hairs here and Gary's initial answer is the best one.
When I do this, I tend to create festival2015.com, festival2016.com because I know my population and that's how they search: "festival year"
So searching for "festival" gets my main domain as first result (I have a fairly unique name) and "festival year" gets the microsite for that year and I don't do any 301s anywhere. Disclaimer: I work in a very niche industry and have almost zero competition for keywords so it's easy for me to rank on relevant terms. Again, other people may have a harder time of it.
When I do this, I tend to create festival2015.com, festival2016.com because I know my population and that's how they search: "festival year"
So searching for "festival" gets my main domain as first result (I have a fairly unique name) and "festival year" gets the microsite for that year and I don't do any 301s anywhere. Disclaimer: I work in a very niche industry and have almost zero competition for keywords so it's easy for me to rank on relevant terms. Again, other people may have a harder time of it.
I still say the 301 is the better solution as far as redirecting links is concerned where Google et al is concerned.
The best solution is have the relevant links from the main domain that have no "year" denominator so even if someone finds an "old" link they are actually are seeing the current years page.
i.e. Once the previous year becomes archived and the new year takes effect then the previous year is moved to the sub folder and the current year content takes control over the page content.
The best solution is have the relevant links from the main domain that have no "year" denominator so even if someone finds an "old" link they are actually are seeing the current years page.
i.e. Once the previous year becomes archived and the new year takes effect then the previous year is moved to the sub folder and the current year content takes control over the page content.
Active today
Like I said, I don't think you can go wrong in the short run with Gary's advice and I'm partly spitballing because I find Google endlessly entertaining and partly playing devils advocate.
Look at http://www.stpatricksfestival.ie/ - I'm guessing here but I think it's the most popular festival in the world ever! ::snigger::
Same website every year but they just update the content.
Same website every year but they just update the content.
Active today
LOL!
We can't wipe out our content each year. We have over 300 participants (Musicians, speakers, performers, healers) and each one has a profile page that they can link to or share (The site becomes an SEO juggernaut!) We want those links to stay active. For some of those folks that's the only big exposure they'll ever get and we don't want them getting a 404 when someone clicks on the link from their lowly website.
Maybe we could have put the participant archives on a subdomain, but we're getting into multiple Wordpress installs for one site. Or maybe we could have used WP Multisite. At any rate. I think you win this one, Gary!
I'm givin' you da points my man!
We can't wipe out our content each year. We have over 300 participants (Musicians, speakers, performers, healers) and each one has a profile page that they can link to or share (The site becomes an SEO juggernaut!) We want those links to stay active. For some of those folks that's the only big exposure they'll ever get and we don't want them getting a 404 when someone clicks on the link from their lowly website.
Maybe we could have put the participant archives on a subdomain, but we're getting into multiple Wordpress installs for one site. Or maybe we could have used WP Multisite. At any rate. I think you win this one, Gary!
I'm givin' you da points my man!
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