Thread: Duplicate pages vs. SE

Hi Everybody,

I - like many of us - frequently re-do pages, many times by cloning, etc. Then file away the old page under a different name and publish the new one in its place.

I believe this creates a duplicate page / content / text problem with the SEs, possibly penalizing the new page.

How to get the old pages safely out of the way? (say, I may want to keep them for my own references).

1. Deleted the old html.s from cPanel; de-published... (I know it will take time to take effect.)

2. I then remove the old, renamed (usually with an "old" tag) pages from my main BV directory to a folder I created within, called "Unused files" = ???

Is this procedure (the combination of points 1 and 2) enough to prevent "duplicate page" conflict with SEs?

Thanks,

Gabor

All you have to do is remove the page(s) from your public_html directory.
You can do that from the cPanel or open the FTP Tool and delete them.
I prefer the FTP method as you can delete more than one item at a time.
SE's will not see "old pages" if there is no link to them.

Thanks.

What is considered "archives"? The public_html?

(I ran into this thing in a different forum and there they used the concept
"Archives"...)

An "Archive" would be a place where files are stored/kept. Any folder/drive/etc could be considered an archive.
Your web pages/files are kept/stored/filed/archived in your public_html file/directory/folder/whatever.

So, this forum I mentioned claims that a robot wouldn't differentiate between the page in an archive and the (similar) page on the site.
I guess, however, if the "archive-file" isn't published it wouldn't get crawled - so, the above claim is only valid if that particular archive is a published one.
Yo la tengo?...

False alert...?

Do a test. Make a sitemap and see if the "old" pages are listed.
Or, simply delete the files from the server.

Thanks, C.T.

To conclude (I guess): no page - no crawl - no see - no conflict.

I'll do a sitemap - I'm curious.
In the meantime I've deleted the unused pages...

So, there...

Have a nice morning, Nighthawk...

Gabor

If what is done in the first message is exactly as said, there never was a problem - as the "old" pages aren't the published versions and you are saving the bv files only? The search engines can't see the files on your computer. They are only seeing the new page that you published using the same name.

When I read this portion:
"Then file away the old page under a different name and publish the new one in its place."
It seemed as if the old page had been published and was still on the server.
Regardless, it seems we have solved the issue.