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I have a website that shows data that only valid for one year, but like to keep the date for archive and compare purposes.

For now I have a 301 redirect (so the other redirecting domains will always have the "newest" content) for domain.com/content/ --> domain.com/content/content-2014.

However some users use domain.com/content/content-2014 or older years for links on their websites, so content on year 2013 has a high pagerank. How can I manage this content for SEO?

domain.com/content/ --> domain.com/content/content-2014 (current year)

domain.com/content/content-2013

domain.com/content/content-2014

domain.com/content/content-2015

Is it smart to redirect 301 old content 2013 --> 2014 and make a new archive page? Or keep it like this?

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  • You are asking a question that has been asked before, but in a slightly more nuanced way. It might be at least best to add a rather obvious image or other link to 2014 content from archived content. I think some form of sculpting will help too- that is to say do not use a date as part of the new content ever, and make sure that all archived content are two or more clicks away from any page while the new content is just one. You can also use mark-up to see if you can age archive content. I am sure there are other ideas, but they are not coming to mind right now.
    – closetnoc
    Commented Oct 11, 2014 at 16:02
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    @closetnoc Can you flag this question as a duplicate of the question you referenced? That will be very helpful for us.
    – John Conde ♦
    Commented Oct 11, 2014 at 17:53
  • @JohnConde I poked around for hours now... and I found the answer I thought was a duplicate, but while the concept of what the person wanted to do was similar, the question is not actually the same or does not appear to be the same. In fact, this one is actually much much much clearer. My bad! Sorry for the delay. I was out working on one of my apartments.
    – closetnoc
    Commented Oct 12, 2014 at 2:01
  • Should i point with link domain.com/content/content-2013 to domain.com/content/ or omain.com/content/content-2014?
    – redver
    Commented Oct 13, 2014 at 17:13
  • See also: Archiving web content annually. One site or sites by year?
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Commented Nov 21, 2020 at 10:41

3 Answers 3

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Is it smart to redirect 301 old content 2013 --> 2014 and make a new archive page?
Or keep it like this?

I would keep it like this because users would be unhappy to see their link pointing to something new without warning.

Now, if link juice is your concern, there would be nothing wrong with putting an internal link from older years pages to current year pages. Current year pages would get a boost from 'the past'. These current year links should automatically 'slide' to the next year.

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Your challenge will be whether you have internal teams (or old visitors) that will be unhappy about seeing new content if you redirect and archive. We were doing this with great success, but the fact that the FB open graph objects locked in with the older meta and like counts really challenged our analytics. We had to discontinue doing this but it definitely works if you can control the backlash.

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Another way to do it:

  • /content/ -- current content with no redirect
  • /content/content-2013 -- last years content

Then when 2015 rolls around, you move the contents of /content/ to /content/2014 and put the 2015 content in the place where it used to be. If people are linking into 2013, you don't get the direct benefit of their links this year, but that won't be a problem for the people who link to the 2014 content.

For 2013 content, I would recommend putting a large notice at the top of the page that says:

This is an archive of content from 2013. click here for the latest version.

Make the notice noticable with a bright color, center of the page, eye catching border, and plenty of white space. Then anybody that does land on the old content will be able to get to the new content.

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