What to do with Deleted Posts?

[SimonCullum]

Hi Michael

That depends on what the errors are that you're seeing in Google Webmaster Tools.

Broken Links (Pages not found) could well be one; if so, identify pages that are still linking to those old blog posts and remove those links or change them to a page that does still exist.

Or you could place a 301 redirect on those old blog post pages to a suitable page that is still live (which would have been good to do originally rather than just deleting the old posts, though you may have implemented 301s already, I don't know what your errors are).

Perhaps those old blog posts are still included in your sitemap.xml;  have a look and if so, remove them from the sitemap.

You could also request through GWT that the old blog post URLs be removed from Googles index.

So a few things to have a check of there. Best of luck,

Simon

[Trigun]

Hi Allan,  Yes I am referring to thin content and some that are duplicate.

Thanks for the advice, will try removing those in WMT.

[Trigun]

Hi Simon,

The errors are 404 (Not found). Is it wise to 301 redirect them to the home page? as there are no suitable page for them.

[wojkwasi]

Agree with all these responses.. add 301 redirects via .htaccess (or relevant technology applicable to your server) that will permanently redirect humans & crawlers to, at least, the home page or a relevant page with similar content.

Some of the deleted pages may still be linked from other sites or internal pages within you site...

[SimonCullum]

Hi Michael

As there are no suitable alternative pages to 301 redirect them to, then yes, the Homepage will be fine, that will remove the broken links and provide a destination for anybody that clicks on one of the links.

Regards

Simon

[Trigun]

Thanks Simon...

[AlanMosley]

I say to the relevant pages, as Duane Forresters of bing said that mass 301's to the one page will be discouned.

[wojkwasi]

Absolutely. If there isn't a relevant page then 301 to the home page.. eventually the old page will get removed out the respective indexes

[sandlappercreative]

Try this plugin to manage redirects from the WP admin panel.

I agree with several others that you should point users either to the homepage or main blog page after deleting those posts. The system will eventually realize what's going on and those errors will go away for you in Webmaster Tools.

[AlanMosley]

If they have links pointing to them I agree with you, but if they dont, you should let them 404 or remove them though WMT,