SEO courseModule 2 of 10: Technical FoundationsLesson 2.5
Redirects, Broken Pages, and Sold or Let Properties
What happens when someone, or Google, visits a page that has moved, been deleted, or belongs to a property that has sold or let.
Why it matters
Old links that end on an error page feel careless, and waste the visit.
Why Google cares
Property sites need a rule for every status
Do this first
Write a rule for what happens to a listing's page at each status: under offer, sold, let, withdrawn.
01What it is
A sign saying “We’ve moved next door” sends people to the right place. A sign saying “Closed” just sends them home.
Think of it like
A forwarding address at the post office. Letters for the old address should reach the right new one, not a stranger's house.
02Why it matters
To the people searching
Someone clicks an old "for sale" link and lands on a plain error page, or on a random house in another town. It feels broken and careless, and they don't dig further.
buyers
Click old links to sold homes and hit dead ends or unrelated pages.
tenants
Same with let properties, and they won't search your site to find the alternatives.
sellers
Dead links to service pages feel neglectful.
landlords
Same: a broken fees page is a reason to call someone else.
To Google and Bing
Property sites need a rule for every statusEvery address returns a status code: 200 (fine), 301 (moved permanently), 302 (moved temporarily), 404 (not found), 410 (gone for good) or 5xx (server error). A correct 301 sends visitors and the old page's ranking signals to the new one. Broken links, long chains of redirects and "soft 404s" (an empty page that says 200) waste Google's crawling and frustrate visitors. Property sites create and remove addresses constantly, so this needs a plan, not luck.
An agent example
A property sold six months ago used to redirect to a random listing. The agency now keeps sold pages live for three months, clearly marked Sold, with similar homes nearby and a valuation link. After that they redirect to the area page for that property type.
03Your turn
Check yours, then fix it
- In Indexing, Pages, check Not found (404), Page with redirect, Soft 404 and Server error (5xx). Click each for examples.
- 1Crawl the site and open Response Codes. Filter for Client Error (4xx), Redirection (3xx) and Server Error (5xx).
- 2Bulk Export, Response Codes, Client Error (4xx) Inlinks shows which of your pages link to the dead ones.
- 3Reports, Redirect Chains shows redirects that hop more than once.
- 1Pick five sold or let properties and visit their old addresses.
- 2Write down what happens: still live and marked sold? Redirected? Where to? An error page?
- 3To check a batch of addresses at once, paste them into httpstatus.io.
Here is a list of broken addresses on my estate agency website and a list of my live pages. Suggest the best redirect destination for each broken address. If nothing relevant exists, mark it 410.
- 1Under offer, Sold STC, Let agreed: keep the page live with a clear label.
- 2Sold or let: keep it live for a while, marked clearly, with similar properties and a valuation link. Then redirect it to the closest area or property-type page.
- 3Withdrawn: redirect to the closest relevant search page.
- 4Truly gone with nothing relevant to send people to: a 410 (gone).
- 5Before removing any page, check whether it has links from other sites (lesson 7.1). Those are worth keeping with a redirect.
- 1Update your own links that point to dead pages.
- 2Set up 301 redirects: on WordPress, the free Redirection plugin, Yoast Premium or Rank Math; elsewhere, your provider's redirect manager.
- 3Collapse chains, so each old address redirects straight to its final page in one hop.
- Add a search box, links to Buy, Rent, Sell and Let, and your phone number, so a dead end becomes a way back in.
04Keep it up
Every week brings new listings and new sales, so new chances for this to break. Check the reports monthly, and spot-check sold and let pages.
That's lesson 2.5
Worked through it? Mark it done and we’ll keep track on this device.