Should I 301 Redirect Old Pages to Newer Ones?

[BigMiniMan]

I know there is value having lots of unique content on our websites, but I'm wondering how long it should be kept for, and if there is any value in 301 redirecting it?

So, for example we have a number of pages on our website that are dedicated to single products (blue widget x, blue widget y, red widget x, red widget y). Nice unique content, with some (but not many) links. These products are no longer available though and have been replaced.

So I'm faced with three choices:

1. Leave it as it is, and hope it adds to the overall site authority (by value of being another page), and also perhaps mop up a few longer tail keywords. Add a link to the replacement product on these pages;

2. 301 redirect these pages to the replacement products to give these a bit of a boost, and lose the content;

3. 301 redirect these pages to the replacement products and move all the old content to a new 'blue widgets archive' and 'red widgets archive' page?

Would appreciate everyones thoughts!

[IPINGlobal54]

I would be inclined to use option 2 - provided the new replacement products are a close match, and the pages are well written/optimised. Option 3 is fine to start with, but as you acquire more archive pages over time, you then end up having to deal with the headache that comes with archiving in it's own right.

Another option might be is to take the original content from the old page and append it below the fold on your replacement new product page, and label it as previous products - at least them you will still have brand names and item codes on-page giving you the chance to still rank for older terms - and offer the equivalent replacement. (still 301'ing the old page to the new).

[BigMiniMan]

That's a good idea and could be worth trying out.

My only slight worry with this is as newer products are introduced, there is invariably a period of time when both are popular searches so I wouldn't really want to append 'blue widget 2010' content to 'blue widget 2011' during this period and possibly lose rankings.

I could add 'blue widget 2008' and 'blue widget 2009' of course to the 'blue widget 2011' page, but this might look odd that 'blue widget 2010' wasn't there.

I guess I was also asking if losing pages looks bad to Google - do they like to see a continually growing site?