Points To Be Considered During Redeveloping Webpages

Web pages are not eternal, they don’t live forever. The old and outdated information on the web pages can be removed to replace something new and updated, that’s the strong benefit of these pages.

However, it is a taboo for most of the companies to remove these web pages. Even if the web page is removed it has to be redirected to some other location to help customers find what they want and aren’t lost. And if they won’t find the information they want they will get upset and go elsewhere.

Are redirects the answer?

Many companies put a redirect whenever a web page is taken down or moved. This way the users get the information they want and the 404 “page not found” error page will only be displayed when the URL is mistyped. The redirect helps the customer by taking them to a similar page or even the homepage to begin their search again.

The link rot will still exist, unless the redirect set up for another page having virtually same information. Although, the problem is even worse, when a link goes to a 404 pages, it is easier to set up scripts that say the links are broken, but if the page still shows up correctly, the developers will have to click on every link manually.

Getting rid of old content:

If the content on the site becomes old or outdated, then it becomes important to remove it. Leaving it up will only confuse the users, the old content on the site also portrays a bad reputation about the site. If the page is older, it will have more links attached to it and probably is also better ranked in Google. And if it is redirected, the google-bots will recognize the change and probably take the page out of the directory.

Things that should be redirected:

Accuracy of the information:

If the information given is not accurate, it should be definitely be taken down, however, if it isn’t taken down, it should be redirected to the correct information and not just a generic page (homepage)

Page views an old page gets in a day or week:

Pages with very less pageviews should not be redirected

Considering redirecting all old pages to the homepage?:

This is not any different form displaying a 404 error page, except that the search engine bots don’t always recognize the redirect. Hence, rather than redirecting, it would be a great idea to simply re-write the 404 pages to get more helpful.

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