Service Pages for Work You No Longer Do

Calls for work you stopped doing

The business stopped offering something years ago. The equipment was sold, the person who did it left, or it never paid.

The page about it stayed. It still ranks, still shows the photographs, and still invites people to call for a quote.

So people call. Each is turned away politely, and each spent time finding you that was wasted on both sides.

Some remember that, and do not call back when they need something you actually do.

How old pages keep working

• Search engines keep ranking a page that answers a real search.
• Other websites still link to it from old articles and directories.
• Your own menus and footer still list the service.
• The sitemap keeps telling search engines the page matters.
• Old ad campaigns and listing categories still mention it.

The first is why the problem lasts. A page that answers a search people still make can hold its position for years, long after anyone at the business remembers it exists.

What each wasted call costs

Time is the obvious cost: a few minutes a call, for whoever answers, several times a week.

The less obvious cost is trust. A caller who found you through a page that turned out to be wrong now trusts the rest of the site a little less.

And someone looking for a service you do offer may land on the old page first, see work you no longer do, and decide you are the wrong kind of business.

Decide what each page should become

An old service page has three sensible futures, and the right one depends on what the people searching for it actually need.

Rewrite it when people still search for the service and a clear explanation would help them. Say plainly that you no longer offer it, and point to what you do instead.

Redirect it when a current service is a close substitute. A permanent redirect, known as a 301, sends visitors and search engines on to the new page.

Remove it when nothing you offer is related. A page that returns a proper not-found response drops out of search over time.

A worked example

A language school teaching English to international students arranged homestays for years: host families, placements, airport pickups.

Two years ago it handed accommodation to an outside agency. The homestay page stayed, and it ranked well for searches about homestays in the city.

Calls and emails kept coming from families wanting to host and from students asking for placements, none of which the school could help with.

The page was rewritten rather than removed, because the searches were real and many of the students searching were exactly the people the school wanted.

Its first line now says the school no longer arranges homestays. It explains how students find accommodation, and links to the courses and their start dates.

The calls from would-be host families tapered off once the page said so plainly.

Redirect to something related

Redirecting every old page to the home page is tempting and rarely helps.

A visitor who clicked a result about one service and lands on the home page has no idea why. Search engines tend to treat a redirect to an unrelated page much like a page that has gone.

Redirect only to a page a visitor would accept as a fair answer to the same search: a newer version of the service, or the closest thing you still do.

Your web developer can set the redirects up on the server, where they work for every visitor and every search engine.

When a page should simply go

Some services leave no successor. The business stopped installing something entirely, or the work belongs to a different trade.

Then the page should answer with a genuine not-found code, not a page that says not found while telling search engines everything is fine.

A helpful not-found page, with the main services and the phone number on it, catches anyone who arrives from an old link.

Search Console's removal tool can hide the page from Google's results for about ninety days, which covers the time it takes to drop out properly.

Say clearly what you do instead

The other half of the job is the pages that remain.

A services page that lists what you do in plain words, and mentions what you no longer do where confusion is common, saves calls no redirect could.

One line on the main services page is often enough: no longer offered, and what to ask for instead.

That sentence answers the question before the phone rings.

Clear the traces everywhere else

Remove the service from menus, footers, the sitemap and any internal links that still point to the old page.

Check the Google My Business categories and any directory listings that name the service.

Pause AdWords keywords and ads that mention it. An old ad group can keep paying for clicks to a page you have just redirected.

Then look at the printed brochure, the van and the email signature, which outlive web pages more often than anyone expects.

Check a month later

Search Google for the old service together with your business name, and see which page appears, if any.

In Search Console, the Search Analytics report shows which searches still bring impressions, and for which pages. Searches for the old service still pointing at the old address mean a redirect or removal has not taken effect yet.

And ask whoever answers the phone whether the calls have stopped. They will know before any report does.

The counter-case

Not every old page should go. A service still done now and then, for existing customers, may deserve a quieter page rather than none.

A seasonal pause is not a discontinuation. A line saying when the service returns keeps the page useful.

And a page that brings people who also need what you offer now may be worth keeping, rewritten, as the language school found.

For work that has truly stopped: rewrite, redirect or remove each page deliberately, and say plainly what you do instead.

The order to do it in

1. List every service page on the site.
2. Mark the services you no longer offer.
3. Check which pages still bring visits.
4. Choose rewrite, redirect or removal for each.
5. Have the redirects set up on the server.
6. Clear menus, listings and ads.
7. Update the main services page.

Step four is the decision that matters. A removed page that people still searched for wastes the search, and a redirect to the wrong page wastes the visitor.

Old answers about old services often survive in one more place, covered in the FAQ page nobody has updated since launch.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.