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I'd remove them gradually and then remove them out of the SERP via Webmaster Tools. Ensure you remove all links to those deleted page or else you'll keep getting 404's cropping up

Hey Eric,

If you want to create and work on pages but you don't want them indexed you can add the following to the page in the section (the pages will still be crawled):

If you want NONE of your pages to be crawled (I.E the whole website) you can add the following to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Yep, You just made your site invisible! >.<

Personally I just disallow areas I don't want indexing and let all bots crawl.

User-Agent: *

Disallow: /whatever I don't want indexed

Timon,

I would give it a bit more time - rankings usually drop with a site change like this. I even have it with pages that are ranking and then I change them when they're not moving domain.

DD

Cary,

In my opinion sub-domains should be used for completely different content. If your niche has anything to do with the current site then a sub-folder is the way to go. Can you provide more info on the current site and the new niche?

DD

It can but you'll have to pull a different header for different pages as you do with any dynamic page.

For example if you are using a template and you put that in the header of the template it wouldn't index any page created off that template, so take care when implementing it to ensure it only ends up on the pages you intend it to.

DD

I would take the hit - as I don't believe it will be massive and in the long-run you'd be better off as you'll soon come back to your original ranking position.

You're going to want to change them at some point in time so the sooner it gets done the better in my opinion.

DD

Agreed

I currently have some already listed but I also use:

• Facebook Share plugin
• Google Analytics plugin (although Analytics360 is one I have been considering due to the fact you can view some detail within WP admin)

DD

Hey,

I'd 'noindex, nofollow' cart pages as they are no use to anyone searching and you're just going to dilute your authority through those extra pages.

DD

#1 - You'll probably incur a small hit but the authority is so closely matched between pages I don't see it as a massive problem (are the .com pages ranking btw?)

#2 - Adding a 301 to a page will pass most of the authority/link juice but not all. The 'time taken' can depend on the next time the page is crawled and indexed and/or how often the page is crawled. Hard to give a definite I'm afraid!

On a side note - Other members will say if you're ranking then why change what you've currently got? That's fine - but in my opinion you should 'future-proof' as much as you can and having the www. version is jut best practice.

DD