Thread: Should I worry about re-directing dead tag pages?

So, I picked up a site from another gentlemen. Great content, ranking, etc...based on how we did the site transfer, I have a number of orphaned tag pages (ie they used to exist and show up in some SERPS)....debating on one of the following courses of action:
1 - Do nothing. SERPS I bought the site for are not affected, but I'm guessing some traffic came from there...
2 - Recreate the tag pages as I run across them in Google?
3 - Redirect the tag pages I come across in Google to the main or relevant page??

I could see goods and bads for all, but didn't know what others thought?

Cheers,
James

Ok, so I've taken the approach of recreating the tag pages that I run across in Google, but not importing what dude had up before. So far so good So I guess its a mix of 1 and 2...

I would get rid of the tag pages. Lately, I've been adding the no follow tag to them to avoid duplicate content issues.

Originally Posted by bogart

I would get rid of the tag pages. Lately, I've been adding the no follow tag to them to avoid duplicate content issues.

I agree. I add a noindex to tag, category and archive pages.

I have never seen any of these types of pages show up in search results.

Originally Posted by TopDogger

I agree. I add a noindex to tag, category and archive pages.

I have never seen any of these types of pages show up in search results.

Sometimes there's a canonical issue with new websites and the tag page shows up.

With the site that I purchased, I've found about 3-5 tag pages showing up in the SERPS (no corresponding content page).

So as to not change the overall site profile too much, I've gone with the approach of recreating the tag pages that I come across in either search results or referrals to the site in analytics with the goal of putting a real piece of content up for each topic, assigning to the same tag, etc...so far accomplished for 2 of the 5.

Cheers,
James