Urgent Site Migration Help: 301 redirect from legacy to new if legacy pages are NOT indexed but have links and domain/page authority of 50+?

[JDMcNamara]

Sorry for the long title, but that's the whole question. Notes:

• New site is on same domain but URLs will change because URL structure was horrible

• Old site has awful SEO. Like real bad. Canonical tags point to dev. subdomain (which is still accessible and has robots.txt, so the end result is old site IS NOT INDEXED by Google)

• Old site has links and domain/page authority north of 50. I suspect some shady links but there have to be good links as well

My guess is that since that are likely incoming links that are legitimate, I should still attempt to use 301s to the versions of the pages on the new site (note: the content on the new site will be different, but in general it'll be about the same thing as the old page, just much improved and more relevant).

So yeah, I guess that's it. Even thought the old site's pages are not indexed, if the new site is set up properly, the 301s won't pass along the 'non-indexed' status, correct?

Thanks in advance for any quick answers!

[jesse-landry]

It will only pass the "non-indexed status" if the reason for index removal was due to a penalty. Specifically Penguin. You need to thoroughly go over the backlink profile of the domain and uncover the real reason that the site was not indexed.

Misuse of canonical tags is no reason for Google to de-list a site. They've said themselves that they tend to ignore improperly used canonicals.

Check your backlinks, check Google Webmaster Tools for any messages of unnatural link penalties, look everywhere you can to uncover why this site was de-listed. If those links knocked it out of SERPs then 301'ing them will do that to the next site as well. Bottom line is you need to know what happened before you make that call, but poorly structured site optimization is definitely not the reason.

[JDMcNamara]

Thanks Jesse.

I didn't manage the site (and I'm not actually sure who did manage it, I just know it was managed terribly) but I should be able to get a look at the Webmaster tools. Thanks for the info about the tags, I probably should've realized that.

I just asked around and it sounds like the site was de-indexed just before Christmas 2012. Sounds like Panda (and like I said I suspect a shady link profile, but I'll dig further).

Thanks again.

[jesse-landry]

hey no problem and you can always post the domain if you want this awesome community to take a peek and offer their thoughts. might help you discover something you missed.

Could very well be Panda. If it's an algo-panda-penalty that won't carry over once the content is fixed and duplicates gone.

[JDMcNamara]

This post is deleted!

[jesse-landry]

Well those sites are definitely indicative of link-purchasing and black-hat SEO tactics. Couldn't say for certain but all signs point to yes. Might have a penguin algo penalty going on there.. Depends how many there are/how varied the anchor text is/how unlucky you happen to be.

Can you get to the previous site's Webmaster Tools to check for notices? Honestly if it's a Penguin issue you'd be better off ditching the old domain and starting fresh in this scenario and of course in my opinion.
(I do have some experience dealing with Penguin penalties, for the record..)

[JDMcNamara]

That's my thought as well (about link-purchasing/black hat), [insert expletive].

Like I said, horrible situation. I'm waiting on somebody to get me the login details, but even so, I suspect whomever was managing it prior to my team taking over a new site design would have actually deleted any notices to cover their tracks.

Short of a whole new domain, definitely no 301s, correct? It's going to take Herculean convincing to get somebody to approve a different domain, we are supposed to launch in a few days.