Redirect 301 or Canonical.

[aalcocer2003]

Hello all,

I have a page with a long post title and url path name (more than 70 caracters and 115). This page has many visits but I am changing the SEO website structure according to SEOMOz and forums guidelines so: I WILL CREATE A DUPLICATE PAGE WITH THE SAME INFO.

This issue has been marked as an issue in the SEO tools, for long names>70 and url path names>115

My question is which option should I use and you would recommend me?

1. OPTION 1: Ideally I would like to keep the old post, so I should use the canonical tag, but my main concern is if the search engines in terms of SEO, even the canonical has been done, will penalise my SEO as there is still a post with bad SEO optimising, or if this is not the case because I already used the canonical.

2. OPTION 2: Eliminate the post and redirection 301 to the new page to keep the juice.

I would prefer option 1, as I keep both post and page, but only if searchengines do not penalise my SEO as they detect a long post name and url path name.

Thank you verty much,

Antonio

[Matt-Williamson]

If you have used a canonical tag to point to the best version of your page then there shouldn't be an issue in terms of SEO and search engines as you are actually telling the search engine that you have two pages that contain the same information and you would like them to take the one mentioned in the canonical tag as the original. You are actually practising good optimisation and that is the whole reason the canonical tag was introduced to help optimise website structure for search engines.

A quick question - when you create this new page that will have a different URL and Title are you going to be keeping the rest of the content the same? If so I would personally use a 301 redirect to the new URL and make sure that you have changed any internal links such as navigation to the new URL and not the old one. When I have had a situation such as this that is what I have done and it has worked well. It is important when changing your site structure and URLs that you make sure your navigation reflects your new URLs and not the old redirected ones, so you don't give mixed messages to the search engines.

[aalcocer2003]

Thank you Matt for the great help,

Yes, I will create a page exactly with the same content than the old post, but with right title and url path names according to best SEO practices.

Matt, what I do not still understand is, if I use the canonical, the content will be still in a post (no good SEO) and in a page (good SEO) but my main concern is if the old post that still exists will penalise my SEO overall as the post is not properly in terms of lengths for names and urls.

Thank you very much Matt!

Antonio

[Matt-Williamson]

That is why for peace of mind I would go for a 301 redirect which will pass the majority of link juice in terms of SEO and it will eliminate the old page pointing straight at the new one and telling search engines that your old page has permanently moved to the new URL.

Once search engines catch up they will only index your new page URL and Title which you have optimised eliminating the old unfriendly ones but passing any link juice they have gained at the same time.

Does this make sense?

[aalcocer2003]

Thank you Matt, it does make sense!

Matt, I have another question from a different topic that you may help,

Do you have an idea where I can get a website/traffic income estimator according to the page views & unique users in terms of ads-platforms? I mean strictly due to ads prints.

It is just to have a rough idea of what could be the income of a website with 5000 unique visitors per day (assuming no product/service is sold).

In any case thank you very much for the great info provided,

Antonio

[Matt-Williamson]

No problem Antonio,

Your question in regard earning potential - you are looking an impression model from what you have said - so that all depends on the amount of pageviews you get as this sort of advertising measures CPM cost per thousand impressions.

It also depends on what ad network you choose or whether you are going to try and sell your ad space yourself. CPM Ad Networks have different requirements to sign up with them and they all pay differently.

http://www.earningguys.com/advertisement/15-best-cost-per-impression-cpm-ads-networks/

This article gives some well known CPM Ad Networks that you might want to look into or possibly contact to get an idea about what your site could earn. If you could get an average CPM rate that they pay then you could easily estimate your sites potential income.

What is the engagement like on your site?