Duplicate content

[shedontdiet]

Greetings! I have inherited a problem that I am not sure how to fix. The website I am working on had a 302 redirect from its original home url (with all the link juice) to a newly designed page (with no real link juice). When the 302 redirect was removed, a duplicate content problem remained, since the new page had already been indexed by google. What is the best way to handle duplicate content? Thanks!

[DanDeceuster]

If I understand, you have home page A with old design and home page B with new design. A formerly had a 302 redirect to B. Now the redirect is removed, so you have A and B and they are essentially the same thing, right?

If this is correct, you want to use a 301 redirect from one to the other. If URL of A has all the link juice, I would suggest putting the home page you want on the URL of A and then redirect B with a 301 to A. This is the best way to handle it.

[shedontdiet]

Hi Daniel, Thanks!

How many 301 redirects are OK with google? I ask because there is already one in place leading to A (using A & B from your example).  This is from a still older URL that is no longer being used.

[DanDeceuster]

What you don't want to do is have C redirect to A and then have A redirect to B. You can have a billion 301 redirects, but you don't want to send the crawlers on a wild goose chase. If an old URL currently goes to A and you want A to now go to B, I would change the 301 of your old URL to now go straight to B.

[shedontdiet]

Hi Daniel,

I have a new problem with this "page B". It turns out that the designer, rather than changing 302 to 301, just completely removed page B. Now what we see is a 404 error. What are your thoughts (and/or anyone else's who might be reading this) on how best to correct this now?

Thanks!

[DanDeceuster]

If the page that now 404's is indexed, redirect it with a 301 to the page you are keeping. If it is not indexed, no harm done.

[shedontdiet]

Thanks, Daniel! The page is indexed.

So, I will need to redirect with a 301. However, the actual page is gone. Do I just write one with abbreviated code that includes only language for the redirect? (yes, it's true...I am new at this).

[DanDeceuster]

A 301 redirect is done in the .htaccess file for the domain. There doesn't need to be a page present for a redirect, it is a server side thing. Look up info on writing a 301 redirect in the .htaccess file and you'll find what you need to set this up.

[shedontdiet]

Thank you so much, Daniel! It is now fixed. Yippee!!!