I understand that a 301 page redirect is necessary whenever a page name is changed - by page name I mean changing the Folder name in RW so that the URL for that page is changed
I already have about 60 redirects on my htaccess file from when I changed the structure and redesigned my website
Now I’m thinking of discontinuing some products so some pages will become redundant and was wondering about the best way to deal with this.
Is it a problem to have so many 301 redirects?
How do companies whose product offering is always changing manage this as they must have continually changing page names and therefore reams of 301 redirects?
Any thoughts on the best way to deal with pages that are no longer relevant
If the page/product is no longer in existence it will go to a 404 page (You have one right?) and that’s okay.
If however you are removing the page but the content/product is being put on another page, then you add another 301.
Oh… ok … no I don’t have a 404 page… just done a bit of reading about that… so it’s a standard page that you can redirect people to if or when you remove a page from the website… now or in the future
How do you set one up in RW8?
When I first set up my website I set up a page - I think it is called an offsite page - that people got directed to when they were using an out of date browser… do you set up a 404 page like that? Or some other way?
Thank you
Well, that’s not a straight forward question. in general, it’s just another web page. Some hosts have a default one or allow you to build a generic one. If you want it to look like the rest of your site with your navigation, then you need to build and upload it.
You don’t redirect per say but you do add a .htaccess rule that points to it.
Have a search on the forum there are several threads that talk about 404 pages.
I would think when you first remove a page(product) you would want to “redirect” those request to a similar page or product or back to an index or master page. Search engines will cache sites and old searches for some time, customers may also bookmark pages. After what, you feel an appropriate time has passed, then, by all means, remove the old redirects. I would definitely build a simple custom 404 (“oops” page), not only for the old no longer valid pages but for when folks miss-type. You definitely want your site’s navigation on it, and if you have a site search I would highlight the search function.
From a user experience point of view (and some say google) its always best to send visitors to the most reverent page. If that no longer exists, give them search, site navigation, sitemap.
It’s been 2-3 years since I redesigned my website so do you think this is long enough for the 301 redirects to be no longer relevant or at least much less important.
I’m thinking I could take them down now and if I have a 404 page then this would catch any stragglers who still have links to old pages bookmarked?
Is this sound reasoning ?
