Search for almost any church by name plus "VBS" or "trunk or treat" and you will often land on a page for an event that ended a year ago. The dates are past, the signup link is dead, and the family looking at it has no idea whether this year's event exists.
Your website is the front porch of your church. An expired event page is a porch light left on for a party that already happened.
The good news is that every past event page fits one of three simple decisions.
1. The Event Repeats: Update the Same Page
If VBS, the fall festival, or the Christmas Eve service happens every year, give it one permanent address, like /vbs instead of /vbs-2025. When the event wraps up, don't delete the page. Swap the details for a short note: "VBS 2027 dates coming in March. Here's what last year looked like." Add a photo or two and an email signup.
That page keeps every bit of search history it has built up, and each year it gets stronger instead of starting over.
2. The Event Is Gone, but Something Similar Exists: Redirect It
A one-time event, like a building dedication or a guest speaker weekend, eventually has nothing left to say. If there's a closely related page, such as your events calendar or the ministry that hosted it, set up a 301 redirect from the old address to that page.
Most platforms make this easy. WordPress has redirect plugins, Squarespace and Wix have built-in redirect settings, and frameworks like Next.js handle it in a config file. One rule: redirect to something genuinely related. Sending everything to the homepage confuses visitors and search engines alike.
3. Nothing Related Remains: Retire It on Purpose
When an event truly has no successor, remove the page and let it return a proper "not found" or "gone" response. Then make sure your 404 page is warm and helpful, with service times, a search box, and a link to upcoming events, so nobody hits a dead end.
What you want to avoid is the in-between: a page that stays live, keeps ranking, and quietly tells people something untrue.
Make It a Monthly Habit
Put fifteen minutes on the calendar once a month. Open Google Search Console, sort your pages by impressions, and look for any event whose date has already passed. Decide: update, redirect, or retire. That small routine does more for trust than most redesigns.
Faithfulness in small things shows up online too. A website that tells the truth about what is happening this week says a lot about the people behind it.
If your site has years of event pages piling up and you aren't sure where to start, we'd be glad to help you sort through them.