301 redirects / clean urls
-
hello everyone, we moved our site to a new platform that has url rewrite feature. we are building out a spreadsheet of the old aspx urls and the corresponding page on the new site. my dev tells me that its not important to redirect the old page to the new "clean url" page which sounds a bit odd to me ..example below. okay. so he says its the same difference to 301 redirect this url: http://72.3.181.97/catalog/DesignerDogBeds.aspx to this urls: https://www.k9electronics.com/product.php?productid=3474 instead of this clean url: http://www.k9electronics.com/designer-dog-beds/ can anyone give me any feedback on this? thanks!
-
First, your dev is wrong. The url your dev has first is a dynamic url and you do not want that. You can spot dynamic url's by virtue of the ?, &, .cgi-bin etc. The problem is more in conversions than in a lack of indexing, etc.
You do want to redirect url to url and most believe you will get 90 to 99% of the juice. (My experience is that it is over 90%). The preference from what you provided would be the http://www.k9electronics.com/designer-dog-beds/
Lastly, since you are going down this road, I suggest you read this post by Dr. Pete. It gives good advice on eCommerce. I think based on your question you would find it very helpful.
Best
-
Basically, you are asking 2 questions. Is it important to redirect, and what do we redirect to?
1. It is important to redirect old URL's, but only if those URL's are indexed. You see, people may still click on them, as they will still be in the search engines for a while. Of course, if the URL's are not indexed, you don't have to redirect anything. You are correct to use 301 redirects, and you will lose some link juice but it's better than nothing!
2. The best URL is an URL with relevant keywords. Relevant, so 'catalog' does not need to be in the URL. Your example of http://www.k9electronics.com/designer-dog-beds/ is the best URL. It's good because people will understand what your page is about, and search engines like that.
Good luck!
-
with 301 you will lose some of the link juice, but some will be transferred.
I don't remember where I have read regarding this issue, but if I remember well the number was something like 85% transferred? (Correct me If I am wrong)
Cheers,
Istvan
-
Hi k9byron,
First of all, the three links provided are three very different ones:
1. http://72.3.181.97/catalog/DesignerDogBeds.aspx - no result
2. https://www.k9electronics.com/product.php?productid=3474 - PetSafe PAC19-12069 Spray Refill - Citronella
3. http://www.k9electronics.com/designer-dog-beds/ - designer-dog-beds category
But IF I have understood the question well... Then you are asking which form to use for the redirect.
I would go to redirect the old page to the "clean url". The cleaner the url is, the easier is to optimize for. So go for that version if possible.
I hope it hepled,
Istvan
-
Hello!
To not lose link juice from the old URL's , the best method is to redirect old URL's to new URL's. It's a hard and consuming time work, but you will give relevance to all your new URL's.
Another method is to redirect only old categories into new ones, but it is very possible to lose link juice.
Hope that helps.
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
-
Is my plan the right plan? - What do you suggest/do?
When trying to rank a page high for a certain keyword, I usually go by the following plan. 1. Focus on on-Page SEO. Title tags, webpage URL, unique quality content. In other words, make the page the best you can for the user using the keyword you want to rank for. 2. Promote the page via social media. 3. Try to link build to the page. Contact high-quality sites and have them try to link to your page. I was wondering if I am missing any steps, or do you use other methods when trying to rank for a certain keyword?
On-Page Optimization | | trumpfinc0 -
Index / Monthly Click Number
Hi,
On-Page Optimization | | HypermediaSystems
This is a general question, so sorry in advance if inappropriate. Once I was told, in large scale EC / Forum Site,
the following number should be around 1,
and if it is below 1, it is a good sign ... Google Indexed Page Number / Monthly ( 30days ) Click Number I was told this is just a general idea, and real world situation varies, then
if you don't have any standard, this could be a start. (not dogmatic rules, just reference) Does this sounds about right? or do you have any other formula? I was tasked to do the site wide SEO, and diagnose the general state of SEO-wellness/fitness..
and right now, the number is 1.5, so I am about to report we can do more to get more SERP presence or something... If you guys point me relevant blog article / Q&A forum, I would really appreciate. Thanks!0 -
301 Redirect to external site
Hi guys, We have a client who is getting their website redesigned through us. They are discontinuing couple of their services which will not get featured in the new site. They are fairly well ranked for these services and my client wishes to 301 redirect these pages to an external site owned by his friend so that they benefit out of the ranking. The question is: Will my client's website's general ranking get affected due to 301 redirecting to an external site? The external site is not spammy or red-flagged by Google (at the moment, at least). Thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | RameshNair
Ramesh Nair0 -
Duplicate content shown in Google webmaster tools for 301 redirected URLs.
Why does Google webmaster tools shows 5 URLs that have been 301 redirected as having duplicate meta descriptions?
On-Page Optimization | | Madlena0 -
URLs and folder structure for an E-commerce
Hi there !-) I´m helping a friend who has a e-commerce about nail polish in Brazil. I´m a little in doubt about the urls and folder structure. Two questions: 1. There are 10 products per category and 50 categories. Should I put them all in the root folder or creat 2 major categories ( 25 sub-categories each one)? 2. Whats the better product page url ( the store has around 500) nailpolish.com/IMPORT/BRAND/NAME-OF-THE-PRODUCT OR nailpolish.com/COMPLETE-NAME-OF-THE-PRODUCT Whats the best recomandation?
On-Page Optimization | | SeoMartin10 -
301 redirect www.brandname.com to www.brandname-keyword.com
It seems I've been reading about 301 for hours now, but I still didn't find an answer to my question, so I'm hoping someone can help me out here. I'm starting a new webshop which is relaunching a semi known brand within its specific niche, say kids toys. Now my question is - since the brand name is relatively known and it is only 5 letters short, the website will be www.xxxxx.com. However the brand name itself doesn't say anything about the products we sell, so I was thinking to buy www.xxxxx-toys.com and 301 redirect www.xxxxx.com to this new site, but still use the shorter version in all marketing material since it's a lot easier to type and remember. Apparently Google doesn't give extra juice to sites with keywords in the domain name anymore (?) but it would still say something about site to new customers unaware of the brand name. Any advice? 🙂
On-Page Optimization | | JaneVO0 -
Http://www.xxxx.com does not re-direct to http://xxx.com
When typing in my website URL www.earthsaverequipment.com successfully re-directs to earthsaverequipment.com as specified in robot. However if you type http://www.earthsaverequipment.com it brings up a 404 error Is this a potential issue? if so is there a way to fix it? thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Earthsaver0 -
301 Dilemma
Hi Everyone, I have written new content for a product page and at the same time put it on a different URL: example.com/product The previous URL was something like this: example.com/brand/type/product (PR4) So all in all this is an easy enough 301, however, we also have a shop page for this product: example.com/shop/brand/type/product_shoppage.php (PR4) Should I also do a 301 from this page to the new page?: example.com/product Can you have two 301 redirects like what I am proposing? Kind Regards,
On-Page Optimization | | Paul780