Old Page VS New Page - What do I do?

[nwalker]

I have a ranking webpage for a game that no longer exists - the review is still live on my site.

Another company has just released a game with the same name, albeit the company name is different.

I want to cover all the same keywords as in the original aricle, as they all rank well.

What do i do with the original page, as i want it and it's ranking replaced by my new page?

[baldidiot]

I would go with one of two options here:

1. Update the current page to be about the new game.

2. Create a new page about the new game and add a very prominent note on the old page informing users that the game isn't available any more and then linking to the new page.

It probably depends on how you have things set up and how different the game is. If they're very unique and you have things neatly organised, then I'd probably do #2. If the games are very similar then I'd maybe just do #1.

[chaumi]

+1

Though I'd say option 1 seems best provided you anticipate most searches being for the game name rather than for the game + provider brand.

For the game itself, I'd guess search engines will be confused by having two pages pretty much the same apart from the providers name. But if you think most new/future searches will be provider/game, then 2 looks favorite (while trying to feed the authority from the older page to the new one). In that case, as time goes by and searches reduce for the old provider + game, you can ultimately 301 it. If you do go for two pages, I'd monitor and if it looks like cannibalization is happening, then you can 301 it quicker.

[nwalker]

Thanks for the feedback. Decision made.

I'll keep this simple and take a common sense approach.

I'll create a new page for the new Provider/Game. Then i'll 301 the old page to the new page and leave it at that.

The old page content is redundant, no one is searching for the Provider/Game.

To begin with people will search for the new Provider/Game and depending on how popular the game becomes searches for the Game will happen and if they do i want to the new game to show up, not the old one.

I guess there is a risk to the current rankings for the old game, but they are worthless, accept in the beginning, which the 301 should take care of until google sorts itself out.

Cheers

[nwalker]

Update

I created the new page and published it and 301'd the old version.

Page has jumped in at No 1 for the game only key word, above the original article, which is ranking pos 4.

[chaumi]

A perfect result then, hope it holds. No obvious reason why it shouldn't.

PS Other than if the new page is getting some form of freshness boost. Keep an eye on it.

[erminrajic]

I would update the page for the new game, keep the relevant keywords and then redirect the not ranking new page to the old one!