Merging two pages into one - bad seo done previously

[Syed_Ozair]

Hi,

I have two pages

Page 1
/stop-smoking-hypnotherapy.php
Page authority: 24

and

Page 2
/stop-smoking-in-highgate-north-london-radlett-hertfordshire-and-city-of-london.php
Page authority: 13 with 2 internal links only

This was probably done to get more local searches to the page but i think it is a bit spamy.

Would it be better to 301 page 2 to page 1 or make it as a blog post and keep it alive?

[WilliamKammer]

The page 2 URL looks spammy, and if it provide the same kind of content as on page 1, then I would agree that 301ing page 2 is a good option.

[TheeDigital]

My feeling based on looking at the titles is that the pages have at least someone different content.  I would think the company was trying to target some area based keywords somewhere on page 2.  Does that page get targeted traffic based on those keywords?  If so I would keep it alive, as a blog post if you wish, as redirecting it would lose that traffic.  If it gets no traffic and is not successfully targeting any long tail keywords then just update the internal links and redirect it to page 1.

[JaneCopland]

Hi Syed,

I definitely agree that the second URL looks too spammy - especially because some of those areas of London are nowhere near each other (Hertfordshire is about an hour away from the "City of London" - an area in East London - and the demographics of each area are astoundingly different!).

Without having seen the pages live, I would probably 301 the second page with the longer URL to the first page, or break out the services offered in different parts of the area to showcase people working in Hertfordshire, the City, etc. If there was enough original content, you could have a page for different areas. My guess is that there is no difference, however, or that there would not be enough different information to justify regional pages - that the page is for one business targeting multiple areas. If so, go with the redirection option.