Removing content from article providers

Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi

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Removing content from article providers

uptil7000

3:27 pm on Apr 3, 2011 (gmt 0)

I have a site thats been up for over 10 years. About 3 years ago I started an article directory on the back end with content form some of the article providers. At the time it added a ton of pages to the site (over 10,000+) adding new content everyday. I have not added to those in at least a year maybe 2 except for a little here and there.

Since Panda I am thinking about getting rid of that content and doing a 301 redirect to the home page from that directory.

I do get "some" traffic from those articles but the bounce rate is pretty high. My original intent was to add new content but due to the nature of articles I am sure it's duplicate content. It made sense at the time now I am not sure if makes sense to lose it. What do you think?

If I do end up doing a redirect what is the best way to go about it so I dont get hit with a penality?

tedster

6:37 pm on Apr 3, 2011 (gmt 0)

I personally would not redirect diverse content to the home page. If there is something similar in topic, that's where I'd redirect. If there is no replacement, then a 404 or 410 is what I'd do.

Sometimes a page I'm going to remove has attracted decent backlinks. Then I probably will want to redirect that URL, but again - to an appropriate on-topic page. But if there are no backlinks and no obvious "replacement content", then I wouldn't bother with the redirect. I don't see how it could help.

And since your content was taken from article providers and is not unique, you would most likely find that good backlinks would be rare.

uptil7000

7:11 pm on Apr 3, 2011 (gmt 0)

but you would remove it?

tedster

7:13 pm on Apr 3, 2011 (gmt 0)

Yes, sorry if I wasn't clear enough. That's what I meant by a 404 or 410 response.