{"id":144676,"date":"2022-06-21T10:01:54","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T17:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/?p=144676"},"modified":"2023-08-07T06:41:01","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T13:41:01","slug":"how-to-remove-a-webpage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/how-to-remove-a-webpage\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Remove a Webpage"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a> What do you do?<\/p>\n In this article, I will cover why<\/em> you might remove webpages, and how<\/em> to go about doing it to minimize the impact on SEO. Feel free to jump ahead:<\/p>\n Outdated content is one of the most common reasons for wanting to remove a webpage. That\u2019s logical when a page isn\u2019t worth the effort to update or rewrite.<\/p>\n Sometimes, you may want to remove a webpage because it\u2019s no longer relevant. Other times, you might need to remove an entire section of your website, for example, if you no longer provide the service the pages are talking about.<\/p>\n Of course, some website owners may need to remove content that is harming their site. But that is another topic.<\/p>\n When you publish a webpage, it can build SEO value over time.<\/p>\n If it gets links, has other ranking signals, and then ranks and brings in traffic, taking that page down can stop rankings and traffic.<\/p>\n If a person follows the link to your webpage from another site and the page no longer exists, they\u2019ll get a \u201c404 not found\u201d message.<\/p>\n This can impact the user experience. The person will likely click away from your site (more lost traffic) unless you handle the 404 well. More on that later.<\/p>\n So you want to be careful about how you handle webpage removals. Luckily, there are easy ways to preserve the value of those pages so that your website and users still benefit.<\/p>\n When you want to get rid of an old webpage from your site, you have four options:<\/p>\n OK, so updating the content is not removing it. But updating content is often the best solution to outdated content.<\/p>\n In fact, refreshing old content is an SEO best practice, and keeping web content up to date can improve relevancy and rankings. (No doubt you\u2019ve heard me emphasize content maintenance<\/a> in a healthy SEO program.)<\/p>\n So before you remove a webpage, first figure out if you can refresh the content on that URL to make the information current.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll want to make sure that the content is still \u201con topic\u201d to what it is today. So, in other words, don\u2019t change the page to a new topic, but rewrite the content as needed.<\/p>\n Example:<\/em> If a website republishes a new research report every year, the page keeps the same focus but with new data. The website should simply update the content at that same URL with this year\u2019s report and highlights.<\/p>\n Other times, certain topics can be refreshed to make them more evergreen. This might look like updating the statistics, current trends, and the angle to bring it up to speed.<\/p>\n Remember, Google rewards webpages that keep their content up to date.<\/p>\n Before you kill a page, find out if there is a next-best webpage on your site to redirect that page to. If so, you can do a 301 redirect.<\/p>\n A 301 redirect sends the user from Page A (the page you want to drop) to Page B (the new location).<\/p>\n A 301 redirect also makes the search engine index the new page (Page B) and drop the old page (Page A) from the index. Plus, it transfers the inbound link authority of Page A to Page B in the process.<\/p>\n All in all, it\u2019s a win-win for SEO.<\/p>\n One caveat:<\/em> Make sure that the page you are redirecting to is topically relevant to the original webpage. Otherwise, it may be confusing to users and search engines as to why they are being brought to a webpage that is not relevant to what they were expecting.<\/p>\n If you cannot redirect to a relevant webpage, in some cases, you might redirect to a relevant category page on the website.<\/p>\n A last resort is to redirect to the homepage, but this is done on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n For more, read:<\/p>\n When you\u2019ve exhausted other options like updating the webpage\u2019s content or 301 redirecting the page, sometimes all that is left is to delete the page.<\/p>\n In these cases, your server should return a 404 \u201cnot found\u201d error message to anyone who follows a link to that page from somewhere else.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a bummer for user experience, but it does present a unique opportunity to help users explore new content. And that is by creating a custom 404 page.<\/p>\n A custom 404 page is a webpage that is served when a user gets a 404 error. This webpage should have helpful info on what the user can do next. For example, you can give links to other resources on your website instead.<\/p>\n
\nSometimes webpages are no longer relevant to your business. Or you could have other reasons to remove them. But taking pages down could cause SEO or user experience issues.<\/p>\n\n
<\/a>Why Remove Webpages?<\/h2>\n
<\/a>SEO Impact of Removing Webpages on Your Site<\/h2>\n
<\/a>How Do You Remove a Webpage?<\/h2>\n
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Option 1: Update the Content<\/h3>\n
Option 2: Do a 301 Redirect<\/h3>\n
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Option 3: Unpublish the Webpage (and Create a Custom 404 Page)<\/h3>\n