Hello,
Thank you for contacting Rank Math and sorry for any inconvenience caused.
Usually, when you want to do away with any non-existent pages, you can use a 410 redirection. A 410 redirect is a good way to tell Google that a page is gone, which will then help it drop from the index. Do note that removing it from a sitemap won’t remove it from the index.
If you wish to retain the link juice you get on those 404s, you should use the 301 redirect to the most relevant page on your website.
With Rank Math you just have to go to the Redirections settings and create a new redirection then set the type to a 410. See screenshot:https://i.rankmath.com/E8oLgz
Hope that helps and please do not hesitate to let us know if you need our assistance with anything else.
Yes i realise that, but I was wondering if there was a more automated way to cover all paged URL’s which are non-existent, and removes the redirect when they become active again.
Other wise it would be virtually impossible to manage the redirects as those pages become inuse again.
Hello,
Thank you for contacting Rank Math again.
Unfortunately, this is not possible with the Rank Math functionalities. Actually, if you say that there is a time that these pages will be in use again once there are additional products, then you should not set them to be non-existent.
This is because Google will completely remove them from their SERPs and they would not need to follow the links within these paginated pages again.
My recommendation here is that you leave them as they are and you also do not have to set them to noindex at the moment.
If you wish you can only redirect them to a page that you wish to pass link juice to. But you have to revert/remove this redirect manually again if the paginated page gets links within it again.
We really look forward to helping you.
Thank you.
Hello,
Since we did not hear back from you for 15 days, we are assuming that you found the solution. We are closing this support ticket.
If you still need assistance or any other help, please feel free to open a new support ticket, and we will be more than happy to assist.
Thank you.
