Redirect Mess Since Panda

[c41lum]

Like many of you I have been hard at work trying to sort out my site since the Panda update.

The problem I have is I have a large site (120,000 + pages) which I want to condense into about 20,000 pages. After reading everything about panda I think that this will be a good move. Basically we got a bit carried away and created too many thin database driven product pages.

My problem is that now we are now showing 100,000 404's in WMT.

Where we can we are redirecting old pages to the content packed upper sections (all good).

But in some strange instances we are 301 redirecting to a page that returns a 404 or we are 301 redirecting to a page that is then 301 redirecting on to a section head.

Has anybody had a issue with doing a double 301 redirect and is 100,000 404's too many?

We are also adding some excellent informative content. Its been about 3 weeks since we did all these changes but still no movement in the serps. I still have brand new scraper sites well above me.

[g1smd]

A double redirect is bad, and should be avoided.

I'm sure it will take Google many months to figure out the changes within your site. Be sure that your 404 page includes a clear "not found" error message and links to the main parts of the site so that visitors are not lost.

[c41lum]

Thanks for the feedback g1smd,

I have just checked and we are also doing over 2,000 301 redirects to the home page.

Is it better to return a 404 than to do a double redirect.

[g1smd]

2000 redirects to the home page is bad. A redirect is used when the content at the new URL replaces and is a reasonable match for the content at the old no-longer-existing URL. This is not the case here. The 404, or better yet the 410, is preferred.

[c41lum]

Do you think we should change the 301's to the home page into 410's. Or should we just leave them.

I think we are better to 401 the double redirects that we are doing now.

[tedster]

How can the home page be a true replacement for 2000 pages? It can't.

Use the 410 if you don't have a real alternative version of the removed content. If the original URL had strong backlinks, then make sure that some appropriate content is found or created before using the 301 - or even re-do the original URL's content and keep it in place.

[Broadway]

I'd appreciate an opinion:

1) Say I had 30 pages listing foreign car dealers in different metropolitan areas.

2) I Then make a decision that this content is too thin and delete the pages.

3) I have a page that discusses the different makes of foreign cars.

4) Would it be ok to 301 the old URL's to the "makes" page, or is that too much of a stretch and the deleted pages should be 404'ed.

[tedster]

Broadway, I'd think of it from the visitor's point of view. I'm looking for a list of dealers because of some signal I picked up somehow. You give me a discussion of car makes instead. I am not a happy camper.

I'd say no.

[c41lum]

Thanks for the advice do you think changing the 301's into 410's will cause a problem.

[tedster]

There's no such thing as Google Insurance, and adding more 404s or 410s can definitely complicate things for a while. But you're getting your housekeeping done and generating a better site. Long term, that should be a win.

Just make sure you have no internal links pointing to those new 404 URLs, and that includes any sitemaps or other "out of sight out of mind" pages.