4 replies to this topic

[madams]

Hi

Aprox 18 months ago I changed my site from static htm to a CMS driven system

After advice given here, I made the necessary 301 redirects , from the old pages to the new ones.

The old site pages are in root
The new site pages are in www.my-domain/folder. I have redirected from www.my-site.com to www.my-domain/folder

Over a period of time I tested everything and all is working and correct.

My question is...

I still have the old pages in root, should I delete these? or leave them?

If I delete them, do I remove the 301 redirects?

I wonder if some old redundant pages, that were not redirected, are in root that may confuse the search engines or cause some problems.

Should I have a clear out?

[Jill]

I still have the old pages in root, should I delete these? or leave them?

If you're on an apache/linux server you can delete the old files. But do leave the redirects in place.

[madams]

Thanks Jill

Do I leave the redirects in place forever?

Or do you mean for a longer time.

I would have thought the old pages will disappear from cache after a couple of years or so.

[Jill]

I would personally just leave them forever. Why not?

[chrishirst]

I would have thought the old pages will disappear from cache after a couple of years or so.

They do....


...and will come right back again when you take down the redirect.

While ever links still point to the original URI, you need the redirect.