Cancel my redirector?

[Phil]

Years ago I had a redirector, a http://start.at/mysitename thing, which would then go to another site (with longer, complicated URL). I don't need the redirecting anymore as nowadays I have top-level domain-names, and actually forgot all about it. But recently, the thing was appearing higher than the actual site in a search result (well, this was due to a temporary error on a new web site I put up, it's a bit complicated to explain -- I accidentally uploaded the index.html of my new site in the directory of my old site, so that when looking for my new keywords I saw Google happened to index my one-day error).

Should I simply cancel my account and get rid of it? I don't think it could matter to users so for once this is really a SEO thing I suppose. In other words, is it somehow bad to have these redirector services.

I don't think many pages point to it -- a search for link:start.at results in 44 pages only* -- which also makes me wonder just how can it be that the page still shows up so (relatively) high.

(Sorry for the lengthy post, hope I made my point clear.)


*Additional question: How can I search for links to a specific page, in hierarchy lower than the top-level domain? I.e., sites linking to http://start.at/mysitename



[Moved from Google forum to here. Please read this (http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7575) for further clarification. - Jill]

[Dan0]

I'd lose the redirect, Phil. Even if you take a temporary hit in the rankings, it should be very temporary, it's an excuse to contact any webmasters who were linking to it, ask them to change your links, and explore new partnership opportunities with them.

[Oliver Dempsey]

Hi Phil
I would be concerned about dropping that page until the search engines and other sites know that it has moved.
for Google have a look at http://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html point 4 which deals with a page having moved and how to find pages that link to your url.

I hope this helps

Regards
Oliver Dempsey