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Hello all, Thank you for your answers, Oleg, I am not that keen on meta refresh, as it is poor user experience - apparently it needs to be about 10 sec, as shorter time G. may treat as 301. Wonder what is the shortest time I can use which will lose the link juice but wouldn't disturb my visitors. Gagan, in regards to 301 redirecting the bad page to 404 page..isn't that easier just to make it 404 without redirect? Mike, what do you think is the best solution to keep the traffic but cut off bad links to specific landing pages. I will be testing 302 soon from old URL to new one. Wonder if I ALSO should put 404 on the old one...or maybe no index...or it doesn't matter? What are your thoughts?

Adrian, You are on the right track and are trying your best to advise this client with SEO best practices. Pat yourself on the back for that one. I've had this similar situation a few times and instead of using an image I used either an iFrame or a script. An image might work as well. This is not spammy or blackhat or anything like that. It is quite common for site-wide text like terms of service, privacy policy, FAQ, shipping policy, etc... to be shown on every page of a site in this manner. It is especially common on eCommerce sites with regard to shipping, return policy... No matter what just make sure it is all viewable from the major mobile devices. An easy way to test things out is to just choose a few location pages, remove the boilerplate copy (replace it using the method of your choice), write your unique content and give it a few weeks/months to see how it competes in the SERPs. For better or worse this should give you the answer. In the long-run, however, these doorway pages you described are obviously a bad idea so they should have a plan in place on what to do if when those pages fall from the rankings.

And that is why Ryan is an Oracle. Thanks for volunteering your time on Thanksgiving and helping answer questions, Ryan!