: SEO: best way to deal with short lifetime URLs? I am currently in the process of redesigning a job advert site and am trying to put a lot more effort into my SEO. My question is how should

@Alves908

If you know before time when this page (job advert) will expire then consider including an unavailable_after META tag (or X-Robots-Tag HTTP response header) to inform search engines (ie. Google) before time:

<meta name="googlebot" content="unavailable_after: 30-Mar-2014 18:00:00 GMT">


Reference: Robots Exclusion Protocol: now with even more flexibility

For a "period of time" after the listing has expired I would go for a hybrid of all 3 of your options...


Show the job advert but make it clear that the position is closed. This is informative to users who have bookmarked the page.
Provide links to related jobs/pages and perhaps a prominent link to the main job listing page (since you mention that in #2 ). Providing useful information to the user and keeping their attention.
Return a 404 (or perhaps 410) HTTP Status Code (not the default 404 page). This will inform search engines not to index/return the page in search results. 404s are not harmful to ranking - they are a fact of the web.
There should be no links to this page on the website itself.


After the "period of time", remove the expired job advert and serve the default 404 page (which should contain relevant links to current job adverts).

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@Ann8826881

People forget that SEO is about more than just search engines. It is about conversion too. In a proper world, if a page does not exist, a 404 or better yet, a 410 error should be returned. However, that does not help conversion and site usability. Here, a 301 redirect could be used to help capture valuable potential and redirect them to a page that will hopefully engage the user in new activities.

I would say, for a period, a 301 redirect should exist to help convert traffic. Once the old URL has aged and the potential wains, then a 404 should be made to properly drop the page from search engine indexes. How that looks in your metrics and how you make that work, I think is up to your specific needs.

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