Changing URL Structure
-
We are going to be relaunching our website with a new URL structure. My question is, how is it best to deal with the migration process in terms of old URLS appearing whilst we launch the new ones.
How best should we launch the new structure, considering we've in the region of 10,000 pages currently indexed in Google.
-
Another thought might be to place a noindex on the new pages to start with and as we migrate and 301 redirect the old to the new remove the noindex on the new pages ?
Thoughts ??
-
Bump - can anyone else offer some input ?
-
Yes, that is the problem we are going to have. Can anyone else help or offer some advice ?
-
Hmm, I'd release the new pages gradually. 10,000 pages hitting the index in short order may get your site noticed and maybe treated as spam.
Maybe someone else on here can give you better guidance on the release schedule but I'd go with maybe 100 to 150 pages a day. That's a 3 month release plan.
Steve
-
On another point, the new pages will all have new meta, content etc, so if we left the old pages online until we had the chance to go through them I don't think we'd have any problem re duplicate content.
-
Hi Steve,
I fully understand the workings of 301 redirect etc. However, my concern is we have over 10,000 pages. Whats the best way to change from URL to another ?
Shall I release the new homepage, with links to the new already created pages, and then go through the old content and redirect it all ?
-
OK, for each new page you implement, 301 redirect the old one to the new (when the new is complete) that way you won't loose any traction from google.
a 301 Permanent Redirect tell the SEs that your content has MOVED PERMANETLY
Make the 301 redirect another action on your make live list for each page.
HTH
Steve
-
Hi, the old URLs will still remain whilst the new ones are being uploaded. There is no real pattern between the old and new URLs. All new URLs are more SEO friendly and keyword targetted.
Our old pages use ASP so I can easily implement a way of updating the old pages with a redirect.
My concern is what process should we take when changing the URLs in the transition period.
-
Hi,
Presumably you'll be getting "404 errors" as you migrate / remove the old pages. My view is that you'll need to carefully construct a 301 redirect in a .htaccess file.
This may be a real bind if there is no real pattern to your old structure that you could "translate" to the new URLs.
I'm not good on redirecting using GREP so maybe someone else here could advise. Could you post some URL examples (old => New)
Steve
-
You should create 301 redirects for all old pages. By the way you can use "Mod rewrite" module for Apache.
If it's hard to determine rules, you can redirect object pages to new category page, but of course it is less efficiency way.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Same URL-Structure & the same number of URLs indexed on two different websites - can it lead to a Google penalty?
Hey guys. I've got a question about the url structure on two different websites with a similar topic (bith are job search websites). Although we are going to publish different content (texts) on these two websites and they will differ visually, the url structure (except for the domain name) remains exactly the same, as does the number of indexed landingpages on both pages. For example, www.yyy.com/jobs/mobile-developer & www.zzz.com/jobs/mobile-developer. In your opinion, can this lead to a Google penalty? Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vde130 -
URL Structure for geo location for specific page
On hackerearth.com/challenges page, there is an option to select languages. This option is in the footer. Once you select the language the url changes. Ex - if we select French, the URL changes to hackereath.com/fr/challenges. In case we decide to change the URL of this page with Geo, what should be the URL structure which accommodates languages as well. My research says that it would good to keep the url like domainname.com/page/language.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Rajnish_HE0 -
Change of address webmaster tools
Hi dear experts; I trying to migration to https and follow the guide line that explain how to do it. After redirect 301, I created new property on WMT for ssl version and change the pre address to new one. but as you can see in the attach file, the new property does not appear in the list. the old version of domain is: sharifconsult.ir the new one is : https://sharifconsult.ir yd9fL
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoiransite0 -
Help with facet URLs in Magento
Hi Guys, Wondering if I can get some technical help here... We have our site britishbraces.co.uk , built in Magento. As per eCommerce sites, we have paginated pages throughout. These have rel=next/prev implemented but not correctly ( as it is not in is it in ) - this fix is in process. Our canonicals are currently incorrect as far as I believe, as even when content is filtered, the canonical takes you back to the first page URL. For example, http://www.britishbraces.co.uk/braces/x-style.html?ajaxcatalog=true&brand=380&max=51.19&min=31.19 Canonical to... http://www.britishbraces.co.uk/braces/x-style.html Which I understand to be incorrect. As I want the coloured filtered pages to be indexed ( due to search volume for colour related queries ), but I don't want the price filtered pages to be indexed - I am unsure how to implement the solution? As I understand, because rel=next/prev implemented ( with no View All page ), the rel=canonical is not necessary as Google understands page 1 is the first page in the series. Therefore, once a user has filtered by colour, there should then be a canonical pointing to the coloured filter URL? ( e.g. /product/black ) But when a user filters by price, there should be noindex on those URLs ? Or can this be blocked in robots.txt prior? My head is a little confused here and I know we have an issue because our amount of indexed pages is increasing day by day but to no solution of the facet urls. Can anybody help - apologies in advance if I have confused the matter. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HappyJackJr0 -
SEO Overly-Dynamic URL Website with thousands of URLs
Hello, I have a new client who has a Diablo 3 database. They have created a very interesting site in which every "build" is it's own URL. Every page is a list of weapons and gear for the gamer. The reader may love this but it's nightmare for SEO. I have pushed for a blog to help generate inbound links and traffic but overall I feel the main feature of their site is a headache to optimize. They have thousands of pages index in google but none are really their own page. There is no strong content, H-Tags, or any real substance at all. With a lack of definition for each page, Google see's this as a huge ball of mess, with duplicate Page Titles and too many onpage links. The first thing I did was tell them to add a canonical link which seemed to drop the errors down 12K leaving only 2400 left...which is a nice start, but the remaining errors is still a challenge. I'm thinking about seeing if I can either find a way to make each page it's own blurb, H Tag or simple have the Nav bar and all the links in the database Noindex. That way the site is left with only a handful of URLs + the Blog and Forum Thought?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MikePatch0 -
Should I change wordpress urls?
Should I change my wordpress permalinks to include the keyword? For examples at the minute my url is http://www.musicliveuk.com/home/wedding-singer. Is it better to be http://www.musicliveuk.com/live-bands/wedding-singer. 'home' is not relevant so surely 'live-bands' would be better? If I change the urls won't I lose 'link juice' as external links will all point to a url that no longer exists? Or will wordpress automatically redirect the old url to the new one? Finally, if I should change the url as described how do I do it on wordpress? I can only see how to edit the last bit of the url and not the middle bit.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SamCUK0 -
Subdirectory URLs
If I have category pages for my site; is it better to use http://example.com/category/category or just http://example.com/category? Also, I'm creating a new section of the site; a resource center. Should the URLs of the pages in the resource center be http://example.com/learn/page or just http://example.com/page What are the reasons for the better choice?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Visually0 -
SEO Strategy for URL Change
I'm working with a company who will likely have to change their URL because of a trademark dispute. They will be able to maintain the new URL for some period but will soon need to drop the existing URL all together. Aside from the usual keyword considerations when choosing a URL, are there any SEO strategies I should consider as we execute this change?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Jon_KS0