avoiding 404 errors for expired and deleted listings

  • Resolved pandl

    (@pandl)


    7 years, 7 months ago

    I’m confused about the best way to handle expired/filled job listings? If they get deleted there is the risk of 404 errors which is bad for SEO, but never deleting them will eventually bog down the site. My instinct is to delete filled/expired listings and then create a 301 redirect back to the general job listings page but this could become cumbersome over time.

    Another concern is that many of the listings have the same title, for example there are several listings for Human Resources Relations Manager, so the url ends up being: https://www.website/ job/human-resuorces-relations-manager-2/ or -3 or -4, etc… If I redirect https://www.website/ job/human-resources-relations-manager/ to the general job listings page then what happens if they try to post a new Human Resources-Relations Manager listing?

    Appreciate any suggestions.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Plugin Contributor jonryan

    (@jonryan)

    Hi @pandl,

    I believe most of what you are describing regarding deleted jobs are mentioned here: https://github.com/Automattic/WP-Job-Manager/issues/869

    For your second question I’m not sure I entirely follow you. Are you saying you are redirecting expired listings to the general page? I’m not sure I understand your intention here.

    Thread Starter pandl

    (@pandl)

    Thanks for getting back to me.

    I was considering redirecting deleted single job post URLs to the Job Listings Page. I since saw the github post that you mentioned, (it took a while to unearth) and I see that you recommend leaving a status code of 404, which negates my question for the 301 redirects.

    In case someone else has the same question, I thought I would clarify.

    Because the permalinks for Jobs custom post type is inherently set to Post Name, and many of the job listings on the site I’m building have the exact same title, I wondered what would happen if I deleted https://www.website/ job/human-resources-relations-manager, then redirected it to the jobs listings page https://www.website/job-opportunities/, and then entered an new job listing with the title Human Resources Relations Manager?

    I ended up using the “Custom Post Type Permalinks” plugin so I could customize the Jobs CPT permalinks to Day and Name: https://www.website/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/ and that way single job listings with the same title will all have unique URLs.

    Plugin Contributor jonryan

    (@jonryan)

    and then entered an new job listing with the title Human Resources Relations Manager?

    Ok I totally follow you now after you said that. Yeah I think that was a good questions and makes a lot of sense.

    I ended up using the “Custom Post Type Permalinks” plugin so I could customize the Jobs CPT permalinks to Day and Name

    And this is working for you? It’s good for us to know what plugin hacks are working and documenting them here for others.

    Cheers!

    Hello @pandl,
    Regarding the 404/301 redirect. I am having the same issue with google webmaster tools reporting lots of 404’s. I was thinking of doing also a redirect, but I don’t see in the github where it mentioned to just leave the 404’s. Won’t this negatively affect SEO / and ranking?
    Thanks,
    Nick

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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