Need advice on 404 and 301 redirects for site.

Discussion in 'Google' started by Oly, Dec 5, 2012.

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  1. #1
    Hi


    I am looking to redevelop my Voucher Code/Coupon site and I was wondering up to go about it.


    My aim is to clear Google of the currently indexed pages by either doing a 301 or 404. The problem is I am not sure which one to choose, should I do a 404 and then redirect to the homepage or should I 301 and redirect to the homepage?

    Is there any benefit of doing either and if Google all of a sudden notices all old pages redirecting to one page will this cause an issue?

    Thanks
     
    Oly, Dec 5, 2012 IP
  2. ryan_uk

    ryan_uk Illustrious Member

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    #2
    Or you could just use robots.txt to block them?

    For example, if you wanted everything after /vouchers deindexed ten you could just have:

    User-agent: *
    Disallow: /vouchers

    And that would disallow /vouchers/tesco, /vouchers/tesco/24-hour-milk-deal, /vouchers/argos, etc. (I.e. everything under /vouchers.)

    It all depends on your needs. If you have backlinks to pages and don't want to lose the link juice then you could redirect to another relevant page (if one exists). Otherwise, robots.txt is a simple way to handle removal of all pages.
     
    ryan_uk, Dec 5, 2012 IP