SEO question on deleting content

[paulgl]

I have some pages I no longer want. They are all
indexed by googe, have PR 3 , all part of the same site.

I am redoing some content and streamlining it.
I no longer want nor need the pages in question.

So, keeping them is not an option.

What is the best way to get rid of them,

1) just delete and use the custom 404
2) Use a 301 redirect to the main page

The question I have about option 2, is that what
if they all get redirected to the main page? Does this
affect any google ranking of the main page or any other
part of the website? Would that make it seem as if all
pages are being used to direct google in a not so good
way?

I've only used the 301 for single page swapping, not multiple
sites to the same page.

Anyone want to take a stab?

Paul

[Jeff Scott]

You have a couple options.

1. As you suggested, delete page and do a custom 404 (solves the problem but doesn't help)

2. Normally you can use a ROBOTS.txt with a NO INDEX setting, but since the pages have been indexed already, use NOINDEX in the META

3. I'd recommend 301 redirects. Usually you want to redirect from your old page to a new equivilent page (ex. services > services), but if there isn't a page that makes sense, then redirect to the home page. Why this solution? These pages have PR, they might be entrance pages and generating traffic from SERPS, so 301's keep the value and pass it along to your site. Don't close a "door" if people are using it

Hope this helps!

[atwellpub]

If it is a wordpress blog you might could use a plugin like this: WordPress › Redirection WordPress Plugins

So like Jeff mentions, I reccomend 301 redirects, keeping the original landing page available.

[paulgl]

Thanks for the replies.
So, doing let's say 10 pages using 310 all going to the
main index page does not look like 10 pages trying to fool
people into going to the main page?

I'm actually leaning to the custom 404 at the moment.
Why?
Well the pages in question were done using EZA articles when
I first started this site a while back to get some content.
The pages are indexed, but the funny thing is, when I do search
for the url, it shows up. But when I take a snippet of the article
and do a search for that, the only one google shows is the original
one at EZA. No others. Nada. Zip. So I don't think it will actually matter
which way. I could even do a meta refresh, for that matter,
I suppose.

Paul