This tip was printed from the MalekTips Computer and Technology Help and Tips website at http://malektips.com.

Web Development - Misc. - Never Delete a Webpage

What's that you say? What if I have content that has changed so drastically that it needs to be placed in another page? What if I laid out my paths incorrectly and want to change them? Should I not delete the old files?

Yes, and no. You should always update content, even if it means moving text from one page to another. But never, NEVER completely remove a webpage URL. When a web spider (sent from places like AltaVista <http://www.altavsita.com> and others) indexes your site, it will keep all of the webpages on your site in its database. If you delete a webpage on your server, that's fine and good, but InfoSeek still references your page.

It looks VERY BAD for people to hit 404 not found errors on your site, and you should do everything in your power to keep this from happening. Therefore, instead of completely deleting a file or subdirectory, replace the .HTM files you were going to delete with a referrer page. Tell them the page they were trying to access has been moved to a new site, and give them the new link page. Better yet, use <META> tags and redirect people to the new pages.