SEO Best Practise question
 

I don't know why this has only just crossed my mind but anyway........

Let's say you have a website about Cats, a directory that lists cats.

It's broken down into MALE cats and FEMALE cats under female cats you have....

Cat A
Cat B
Cat C

and under male cats you have

Cat D
Cat E
Cat F

If Cat B decides she's such a pussy that she doesn't want to be on the directory anymore what is best practise ??

1) Delete Cat B's page and have a 404 error default to the index page OR
2) Delete Cat B's page and do a 301 redirect to the FEMALE cats page ?

Leave as much of the content on the page in place as possible, do not change the page title. Leave the page and links in place.

Thanks, but assuming it HAD to be deleted, what would be the best option ?

Delete everything- the bitch is a flash in the pan anyway- no one gives a fuck

Find a new Cat B

I suppose a 301 to the pages (categories/cities etc etc) you want to rank better. But if search engines are your concern, I wouldn't delete the page .

Best suggestion from SEO point of view assuming you want to delete Cat B due to duplicate content or some other problems. If it is for DMCA or any other issue directly related to Google and have received official warning, then delete the Cat B page altogether.

Ok it doesn't have to be deleted for any legal reasons and it really is just a general question and not related to any particular cat or pussy. Here's another analogy, an online store has a page for a particular product, the product ceases to be manufactured, the retailer will not continue to promote it or index it if they don't sell it, that will piss the customer off, do they...... 404 to a default or 301 to a category page ?

The reason I am asking this is I saw a Matt Cutts video about canonical URL's within domains and how "they are like mini 301's" and you can transfer the link juice that way, so logic is telling me that a 301 redirect is better for a deleted page than just a bog standard 404, but I'm just seeking opinion.

When a product is not available on an online store it says product not available i think a redirect would be a bad idea

301 is what the man says

Here is what I would do:

I would change that product page to a message that says something like "We're sorry, but this product is no longer available. Here are a few related products that you might like:"
With the usual SEO for each product below that.

Aha, I get you......so that page could be for FEMALE CATS and do a 301 redirect to FEMALE CAT NOT HERE template or just alter the CAT B page ?

I meant just alter the Cat B page :winkwink:

If you had to choose between a 404 or 301, though, do the 301.

He's saying what I said. There are only negatives to removing the page in terms of SEO and no benefits. A wise strategy would be to determine how you can keep the page, as much content as possible, links and page titles in tact.

:thumbsup

OK I appreciate all this input really.......BUT "if I delete a page should I 404 default or 301 to category" ?

are there any links to that page? does it bring it any SE traffic now? your site has less than 100 pages like these?

unless you answered "yes" to any of the above, just delete the page, let it show a 404 error, it's not going to make any noticeable difference either way... (just make sure you don't have any internal links leading to it anymore)

if page is deleted, redirect 301 and in webmaster tools ask them nicely to delete it from se.. there is an option ..