noindex, redirect, prune content

#50694
  • Resolved Bob Vineyard
    Rank Math pro
    Content AI Creator

    I have pages that a 8 years old, no traffic. Content needs updating. Site has too many pages. Considering updating old pages and “reinstating” as a fresh blog post (same site). Do I delete the old page and redirect to new post? Tell Google to noindex the old page? What’s the best way to prune and graft old content?

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Alberto
    Rank Math business

    Hello,

    Thank you for contacting Rank Math today.

    The best way would be to redirect old posts to new ones with similar content (as similar as you can) so Google understands it as just an URL change.

    To achieve it you should use 301 redirections, which you can do by using the Redirections module in Rank Math plugin.

    After that you can remove the old posts (without removing the 301 redirections). Just don’t set old posts as no-index since Google will remove them from the search results but the “rank score” Google gave to them will be also removed. Instead, when you use the 301 Redirections, Google will send that “rank score” to the new posts.

    Looking forward to helping you. Thank you.

    ​​​​​​

    Bob Vineyard
    Rank Math pro
    Content AI Creator

    Thanks for the quick, easy to understand reply. Never occurred to me the “rank” would transfer from the old post to the new one.

    Also was unsure if I needed to nonindex the old page.

    One more question on topic if you don’t mind.

    Would I use the same process if I decided to consolidate older, thin content into one new post.

    Example:

    Existing single topic posts (200 words or less) about “corn, beans, potatoes, beets” that reappears as one “vegetable” post that consolidates information about corn, beans, potatoes, beets.

    • This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Bob Vineyard.
    • This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Bob Vineyard.
    Todd
    Rank Math free

    Hi Bob,

    Existing single topic posts (200 words or less) about “corn, beans, potatoes, beets” that reappears as one “vegetable” post that consolidates information about corn, beans, potatoes, beets.

    Yes, you can do that but you have to check if you will have more success writing extensive content for the smaller topics like corn, beans, etc.

    For example, you could write an extensive post about iPhone but you would have no luck ranking it. It is better to write extensive content about long-tail keywords like is iPhone expensive than android, etc. You would have better luck getting traffic on the latter while trying to rank for the former would be a waste of time.

    Hope that helps and please do not hesitate to let us know if you need our assistance with anything else.

    Bob Vineyard
    Rank Math pro
    Content AI Creator

    Thanks for the update. That makes sense to expand each topic into single posts vs combining.

    I appreciate the help.

    Alberto
    Rank Math business

    Hello,

    I am glad to see it helped you and, if you have any other questions in the future, know that we are here to help you.

    If you don’t mind me asking, could you please leave us a review (if you haven’t already) on https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/seo-by-rank-math/reviews/#new-post about your overall experience with Rank Math? We appreciate your time and patience.

    If you do have another question in the future, please feel free to create a new forum topic, and it will be our pleasure to assist you again.

    Thank you.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

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