Duplicate Content

[rudster75]

Unfortunately, a number of pages on my site were copied and renamed for the purpose of organization in the CMS. Knowing the original files were already indexed, I want to put 301 redirects in on the new files to avoid duplicate content and being penalized for it. If the new pages were already indexed (I don't know yet) will the 301 redirect help or is it too late? Or, should I just delete the new files so on the next index they aren't there?

Thanks!

[jimbeetle]

I'm a bit muddled as to what you want to do, so let's work through that first. Do you want to reorganize the site? Or, do you want to revert to the way it was?

[rudster75]

Thanks for your reply.

I would prefer to revert to the way it was since many of the pages were indexed. I'd like to make it so the changes never happened (if I could).

[jimbeetle]

This could be a coin flip. If the new pages haven't been up that long I might just delete them and let the server return a 404.

If they've been up for a while and the SEs have started to index a good number of them then a 301 back to the older pages might be called for, especially if any of the new pages have garnered any backlinks on their own. On the other hand, if the SEs have only grabbed a few of them, I'd probably go the 404 route.

Whatever you decide, the SEs might get muddled for a bit, though things should settle without too much turmoil -- but be sure to do it now.

[rudster75]

Thanks for the info.

I feel better. The pages only existed on the server for about 24 hours. My concern was it looked like Google has visited during that time (according the Google index in my account).

The pages are now deleted so hopefully the 404 will do the trick.

[jimbeetle]

If they were only up 24 hours you won't have any problems. If the SEs picked any of them up you might see continuing requests for the URLs, just ignore them.

[rudster75]

I hope you don't mind...I have another question.

It appears Google did index all the pages. However, they no longer exist on the site. When someone clicks on one they go to my custom error page.

It seems as if Google indexes my site ever two days (according to my Google Webmaster tools). Will these pages be removed from the search results with the next indexing? I wondering if I should start rebuilding them and put in redirects.

Thank you.

[jimbeetle]

Wow, it got them that quickly, huh? Then a 301 is the way to go, though you don't have to rebuild the pages as with the redirect they will never be requested by the server.