Redirects & Authority when Updating Product Pages

[BeckyKey]

Hi

Quick question on SEO & product pages.

We're changing suppliers, so discontinuing their range, adding new - but the products will be very similar - almost identical in some cases.

I don't want to lose authority built up from current product pages, the only way to reuse these pages is to reuse SKUs - which we can't do.

If I am redirecting these pages to new products which are similar, I know page authority will be passed - so is this the best option?

Our links on the website will actually point to the final URL, rather than going through a redirect - if this is the case will it still pass authority?

Thank you

Becky

[Nigel_Carr]

Hi Becky

The links on the page will go directly to the new products and will therefore carry no immediate authority.

What will create the authority or previously held link juice will be creating the 301 from the old URLs to the new ones. When Google crawls the site it will encounter these redirects in the htaccess file and replace those in SERPS with the new URLs.

The new URLs will then have almost as much authority as the old pages. (around 15% less according to MOZ)

More here: https://moz.com/blog/301-redirection-rules-for-seo

Regards

Nigel - Carousel Projects.

[BeckyKey]

OK perfect, thank you

So the only way I'd have a problem, is if the redirects aren't in the htaccess file - which shouldn't happen, but i'll double check this.

Thank you

Becky

[Nigel_Carr]

Hi Becky

Essentially yes although htaccess is for Apache servers only so check with your developer/platform host that they have been inserted correctly. Then find a few old URLs and satisfy yourself they are redirecting to the new ones,

Best Regards

Nigel