New page with new URL or keeping old URL?

[deeper]

Hi,
let's say there is a page about "healthy apples". The page is not successful, has no backlinks/PR, doesn't rank at Google and the topic is not so important for me any more. Therefore I want change it in "apple juice".

I'd like to change also the URL, i.e., creating a complete new page, reflecting the new content ---> .../apple-juice
The old page/URL would vanish.

Is it worth to keep the old URL, because it may have collected some positive user signals (Panda) and age (4 years) or anything else which I would throw away?

What would you do?

Thanks.

deeper

[aakk9999]

If this is a new page and the content is different, then I would use a new URL. Also, new (better) URL may influence click through rate from SERPs.

You may then consider what to do with old URL - would you redirect to the new one (which would preserve the signals you collected) or would you return a nice user friendly 404 page. For me, this would depend how similar or how different the pages are.

[deeper]

Thanks for answering.

The page is 4 years old and the content/topic is different, but not completely different. It's like the given example: "healthy apples" and "apple juice". There is a relationship, but also a clear difference.

I tend to use a new URL:

-Better CTR from SERPs, as you said; people in general say, URL is not so important for the CTR, but in my eyes the URL may be underestimated.

-I like to have a correct URL, reflecting the content correctly; apple juice and healthy apples are different things. This also may help working me with my site and files.

-The new filename/KW is a niche, so the KW as filename may help ranking a bit.

I'm not sure about the redirection. As the page has no backlinks and rankings the loss of "signals" wouldn't be very big, I guess.
Does a user who is interested in healthy apples want to be redirected to a page about apple juice? Hm...

[RedBar]

Write an article and use the best url you can...I never, never, ever have any hesitation in killing off a page/url and replacing it with a better one.

Forget Google, do what's best for your user and your site structure.

[aakk9999]

Does a user who is interested in healthy apples want to be redirected to a page about apple juice? Hm...

Personally - no.

In this case the best is to return 410 (or 404) with a nice user friendly page where you list what else is about apples on your site. Kind of:

Sorry, we do not have an article about healthy apples any more. Here are other subjects you may perhaps find interesting:
- apple juice
- healthy pears
.....
Alternatively, search our site or go to our home page in order to explore the site.

[deeper]

Some additional good information from Googles John Müller. He said, in my own words:

Redirection from former to new site/page is not only about PR, there are also several signals indicating content quality. Sure, new pages/sites without redirect will gather signals again, but this will take some time, for some signals even months. Business webmaster usually don't want to wait up to half a year.
You shouldn't manipulate by redirecting PR and good signals to pages with different topics.

[MattsBackpack]

In my opinion I'd say create a new page for "apple juice" on a new URL, and keep the "healthy apples" page live on it's current URL.

From reading through your replies it sounds like the two topics are different enough to warrant their own pages, so no need or benefit in taking the "healthy apples" page down