301 redirect recommendations

[Bryan_Loconto]

One of our clients we are working on have two sites the main with a PR5 and a separate one with a PR4.

We are planning on doing a 301 from the PR4 to a page on the PR5

Is it best to do:

www.PR4.com  ----> www.PR5.com/releveantPR4page

or

www.PR4.com/page  ----> www.PR5.com/releveantPR4page

Most pages on the PR4 site can fit into one PR5 page logically. However the PR4 has an about us, contact us, blog/with posts, FAQ, Applications, Legal Resources which are all pretty out dated..

The PR4 site is kinda messy and we are not sure if it will be easy to 301 each page individually with the user in mind.

can we do a sitewide 301 redirect from the root PR4.com to a page PR/5.com/releveantPR4page and also do deeper 301's? PR4.com/PR4page ---> PR5.com/releveantPR4page

[CleverPhD]

You want to go page to page (your second example) as much as possible.  Google prefers more of a one to one vs a many to one relationship with 301 redirects.  That said, if you have a bunch of garbage pages with garbage links with not much traffic to them, you may just want to let them 404 and die out of the index.  Take some time looking at your Analytics and you may find you can just drop those pages.

[sprynewmedia]

I would consider the ROI of the redirect.  If a specific page flows a bunch of link juice and on terms important to the business then redirect to the best page.  After a point, the rest won't return enough value for your client to be charged at your hourly rate.

[RobMay]

Both Lance and CleverPhD have some good points. Really go page by page and map out the entire domain. Both on the PR4 and PR5 sites. Create excel spreadsheets to align up the location and destination of your 301 redirects.

Then, calculate the # of pages you have listed on the PR4 site that need redirecting but really don't have a home. IF the number is small enough, just redirect those pages/URL's for visitors to the homepage. Google doesn't like mass 301 redirects to the homepage, but if those pages have small inbound links, and some value - that will get pushed back to the main index URL.

You could also let it 404 as CleverPhD said, but what I would map out, is a kick-ass 404 redirect page. Include elements like a search function for people to look for new content, add a link to a form that people can fill out to advise of the 404 error. Offer up alternatives and/or pages-URL's that might offer something similar. Have fun with it and add some creativity to help convert those almost lost users to possibly visitors and then clients. Don't just let the 404 page be the end all of the site visit. I have found by really focusing on 404 error page improvements, you can improve both the bounce and exit rates of said pages, and as a result retain users that become clients in the end - all because you were able to take the time to build something that caught their attention, and thus - kept them inside the site Some great examples of creative 404 errors might include this or some creatively funny ones like that. This is another one I liked here.

Hope some of that helps Cheers!