Multiple URL's or Redirect Pages

Hi,

My business has just launched a new website with updated URLs. Consequently a lot of our old URL's that Google is indexing are no longer valid.

My question is about how Google sees pages with multiple URLs vs single redirecting pages.

For example. I have my new "compeitions page" plus about 4 or 5 old compeition URL's that I need to redirect to this new page. If i was to simply go to the properties of my new competitions page, tick allow multiple URL's and then paste in the 5 old ones does this have the same effect as creating individual redirect pages, one for each old URL.

I know that if I put the old URLs under "allow multiple URLs" that they all work and link to my new "competitions page", but my concern is whether Google still sees all 5 URLs as individuals (and therefore duplicate content as they all redirect to the same page).

Or does this function work the same as creating separate redirecting pages?

I am really keen to ensure I get this right as currently we rank quite highly for some specific keywords and I don't want to lose this ranking due to Google thinking we have duplicate content pages.

I hope this all makes sense and I appreciate any insights!

Thanks,
Ashley

Anyone have some input about the above?

I am only new to web developing and am really interested to know so I make sure I get it right.

Thanks again,
Ashley

Hello Ashley,

I believe our additional URLs are simply additional routes that open the same content page - that is Google will see them as different links to the same page, thus treating them as duplicates. One way to "fix" this is to pick one URL as "primary" and add a canonical meta tag to the page - e.g.

<link rel=”canonical” href=”www.yourdomain.com/yourpage” />

This should indicate Google and other search engines that you simply have redirects and do not wish to duplicate content. I found some good article on the matter here:

http://www.evotech.net/blog/2009/02/canonical-tag-for-seo/