Skip to content
europatentbox

europatentbox

The Profession

Primary Menu europatentbox

europatentbox

  • Business & Finance
  • Business News
  • eCommerce
  • Business Education
  • Finance
  • Marketing
  • About Us
    • Advertise Here
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Sitemap
  • eCommerce

SEO: Forgotten Content Can Damage Search Performance

Amy B. Taylor April 19, 2022

Sometimes a site’s own past dampens its bright SEO future. The forgotten designs, old campaigns, and abandoned domains that accumulate unnoticed in a web server can have a negative impact on a site’s ability to rank and drive natural search-referred traffic and sales. Search engines retain records in their indexes long after site owners have forgotten the content exists. That old content could be hurting your natural search performance.

Abandoned Domains

Abandoned domain names can be a source of forgotten content. Companies tend to register many domains to protect their brand names. Occasionally companies host duplicate versions of the primary site on all of the domains they’ve registered. But it’s easy to forget that content. For example, someone in the legal department registers the domains, someone in IT hooks them up, and no one thinks about them for years. But search engines don’t forget.

Coldwater Creek is a case in point. It inadvertently allowed its entire site to be crawled and indexed at https://www.coldwatercreek.org, https://www.coldwatercrek.com, https://www.thecreek.com, and many other variations. Notice that these examples are all on the secure https protocol. Coldwater Creek has optimal 301 redirects on the non-secure http protocol, preventing the duplicate content issue there. Placing the 301 redirects on the secure protocol as well would remedy situation.

Finding alternate domains that may be live without your knowledge is as easy as searching for a string of text that’s unique to your site and excluding your domain from the results. For example, try Googling the following for Coldwater Creek:
Careers at Coldwater Creek Investor Relations Social Responsibility Terms of Use © 1984 -site: coldwatercreek.com. Note the appearance in the search results of what appears to be multiple domains related to Coldwater Creek: www.coldwatercreek.com, www.thecreek.com, www.coldwatercreek.org, and www.coldwatercreek.net.

Legacy Content

Content becomes “legacy” when a site redesigns, rewrites URLs, discontinues products, or when campaigns expire. The SEO optimal action for legacy or discontinued content is to 301 redirect it to the most relevant alternative. More frequently, it’s just removed from internal linking structures or promotions to it stop. It’s abandoned in its live state. Because the URLs load with a 200 OK server header status when requested, the search engines retain them in their indexes.

For example, New Balance has a set of URL rewrites in place at the initial category and product level. Unfortunately, it neglected to 301 redirect its legacy URLs to the newly rewritten URLs. At the category level, we have http://www.newbalance.com/productList.php?cat=2 and http://www.newbalance.com/outdoor/footwear/ loading the same page of content. At the product level we have the legacy http://www.newbalance.com/get_product.php?style=WW811/&cat=6&subcat=5&ptype=1&g=w and the rewritten http://www.newbalance.com/fitness/walking/WW811/ loading the same page of content.

In other instances, legacy content can be a missed opportunity rather than a duplicate content issue. Contests and promotions that generate buzz can accumulate a decent number of backlinks before they expire. Leaving them live to wither away is a wasted opportunity to harvest that link popularity to strengthen the site. For example, the band Linkin Park had a MySpace contest in June 2008. The contest promotion page is still live at http://linkinpark.com/myspace-contest and has acquired a modest visible PageRank two, with 25 external links from 10 unique domains linking to it. A quick 301 redirect to another relevant page on the site would put that link popularity to better use to strengthen content that the band actually wants to rank.

Finding legacy content requires patience and determination. It can be uncovered with a site crawl and by analyzing Google’s indexation data. For example, I uncovered New Balance’s legacy URLs by Googling a product number in their URL combined with a site query, like this: site:www.newbalance.com inurl:WW811. Then I did an intitle query to dig up the category example: site:www.newbalance.com intitle:”See all Outdoor by New Balance.”.

Summing Up

There are multiple sources of forgotten content. It’s in a merchant’s best interest to locate that content and either redirect it or eliminate it. Failing to do so could hurt an ecommerce site’s natural search performance.

Tags: Amazon Fba Business, Atlanta Business Chronicle'S, Boss Baby Back In Business, Business Administration Degree, Business Attire Women, Business Card Design, Business Cards Templates, Business Casual Dress, Business Casual Outfits, Business Checking Account, Business Credit Card, Business For Sale Near Me, Business Intelligence Platform, Business Lawyer Near Me, Business Loan Calculator, Business Name Ideas, Business Professional Women, Business Spectrum Login, California Business Entity Search, Capital One Spark Business, Carl Weber'S The Family Business, Charlotte Business Journal, Custom Business Cards, Delaware Business Search, Fl Sos Business Search, Florida Business Search, Harvard Business Publishing, Insurance For Small Business, Kelley School Of Business, Maryland Business Express, Maryland Business Search, Moo Business Cards, National Business Furniture, New York Business Search, Ohio Business Gateway, Onedrive For Business, Online Business Ideas, Paramore Misery Business, Risky Business Cast, Small Business Insurance, Spectrum Business Customer Service, Tom Cruise Risky Business, Us Small Business Administration, Verizon Wireless Business, Verizon Wireless Business Login, Virtual Business Address, What Is Business Administration, Women'S Business Casual, Yelp Business Login, Yelp For Business

Continue Reading

Previous The Top Tech Companies in Chicago
Next Why a Weekly Content Service Helps eCommerce Brands Attract More Customers

More Stories

Pro-Trump Lawyers Who Lost 'Utterly Baseless' 2020 Election Lawsuit Must Now Cover Legal Fees Of Meta, Voting Machine Company - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
  • eCommerce

Pro-Trump Lawyers Who Lost ‘Utterly Baseless’ 2020 Election Lawsuit Must Now Cover Legal Fees Of Meta, Voting Machine Company – Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Amy B. Taylor December 2, 2023 0
digital customer experience
  • eCommerce

How to Create a Digital Customer Experience That Attracts Customers

Amy B. Taylor November 30, 2023 0
The 9 Types of Video for Marketing Success
  • eCommerce

The 9 Types of Video for Marketing Success

Amy B. Taylor November 21, 2023 0
December 2023
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Nov    

Archives

Recent Posts

  • 5 Recession-Proof Skills You Should Have
  • Marketing 101: What is (particular about) digital marketing?
  • Pro-Trump Lawyers Who Lost ‘Utterly Baseless’ 2020 Election Lawsuit Must Now Cover Legal Fees Of Meta, Voting Machine Company – Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
  • How to Transition to Employee Ownership with Sarah Durham » Succeed As Your Own Boss
  • Finding A Good Financial Planner? 7 Easy Tips To Use Now!

BL

Tags

Amazon Business Login Amazon Business Prime Att Business Login Bank Of America Business Account Best Business Schools Business Business Attorney Near Me Business Bank Account Business Card Holder Business Card Maker Business Cards Near Me Business Card Template Business Casual Attire Business Casual Shoes Business Casual Woman Business Plan Examples Ca Business Search Capital One Business Credit Card Ca Sos Business Search Chase Business Checking Chase Business Credit Cards Chase Business Customer Service Chase Business Login Chase Business Phone Number Cheap Business Cards Citizens Business Bank Cox Business Login Digital Business Card Facebook Business Suite Finance In Business Free Business Cards Google Business Login Harvard Business School Lands End Business Massage Parlor Business Near Me Michigan Business Entity Search Mind Your Business Mind Your Own Business Ohio Business Search Risky Business Costume Skype For Business Small Business Loan Small Business Saturday 2021 Starting A Business Texas Business Entity Search

Related Article

5 Recession-Proof Skills You Should Have
  • Business News

5 Recession-Proof Skills You Should Have

Amy B. Taylor December 4, 2023 0
Marketing 101: What is (particular about) digital marketing?
  • Business & Finance

Marketing 101: What is (particular about) digital marketing?

Amy B. Taylor December 3, 2023 0
Pro-Trump Lawyers Who Lost 'Utterly Baseless' 2020 Election Lawsuit Must Now Cover Legal Fees Of Meta, Voting Machine Company - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
  • eCommerce

Pro-Trump Lawyers Who Lost ‘Utterly Baseless’ 2020 Election Lawsuit Must Now Cover Legal Fees Of Meta, Voting Machine Company – Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Amy B. Taylor December 2, 2023 0
How to Transition to Employee Ownership with Sarah Durham » Succeed As Your Own Boss
  • General

How to Transition to Employee Ownership with Sarah Durham » Succeed As Your Own Boss

Amy B. Taylor December 1, 2023 0
Photo of author
  • Mental Health Related

Finding A Good Financial Planner? 7 Easy Tips To Use Now!

Amy B. Taylor November 30, 2023 0
europatentbox.com | CoverNews by AF themes.

WhatsApp us