Changing the URL structure will it help me or hurt me?

[wmwmeyer]

I got handed a website running on Joomla without the SEO friendly URL check box selected so our URLs all look like this www.rotaryvalve.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22&Itemid=37 . I am hoping to rework this website in the near future here and plan on changing the URL structure across the website so there are some actual keywords in the URL.

When I did this I was thinking of just doing 301 redirects to the new pages and hopefully the hit from the search engines wouldn't be too bad. Can anyone speak from experience as to what the best way to go about doing this would be so I don't end up falling back ranking wise. Would change the URLs end up helping me or hurting me?

Thanks

[Dr-Pete]

Some good comments here, and I'll have to come in somewhere in the middle. I think Vahe is right that there can be meaningful benefits, both for SEOs and visitors. It's also true, though, that a site-wide URL change can carry risks. Solid planning and well-implemented 301s can mitigate most of that risk, though.

If it were only to get keywords in the URL and the site is ranking well, I'd probably hesitate. Since these dynamic URLs are creating duplicates, though, I think it's a different situation. Those duplicates could create very real risk to your rankings. If the URL change can solve both problem, I'd be much more inclined to do it.

There are other ways to deal with the duplicates - the canonical tag is probably a good bet here (although I'm not sure how tough it is to implement in Joomla). Blocking duplicate-causing parameters in Google and Bing Webmaster Tools is another option. For example, you could block "Itemid" if it had no unique value (I'm not clear on that from the example).

[GrouchyKids]

In that case I wouldn't chnge them.

Justin

[THB]

I wouldn't bother changing the URL's.  The difference in terms of SEO is rather negligible.

Of course there are points to be made on both sides, most of which have already been pointed out; however, you are bound to miss some 301's (it's natural), and in my opinion, is just not worth the hassle.  Google is perfectly capable of crawling/indexing parameter-filled URL's like yours.  You're basically looking to re-write the site and give it back to Google.

Any/all backlinks pointing to the existing URL's will forever lose their full power (as long as the backlink URL on the external continues to point to your old URL structure).

If you must do it, take notes from most of what has been said already.  You must be very meticulous in your 301's, and even ask some of the websites that have your link up to change it to the new URL to decrease the overall permanent hit you will be taking.

[Vahe.Arabian]

Kathy,

You will actually be doing your site a favour should you decide to change your URLs. Having static instead of dynamic URLs will not only make it easier for search engines to crawl and index the URL in SERPs, but make it easier for users to also link to the site. This should negate some of the loss of linking URLs that you will encounter. Also as you said keywords in the URLs are a major plus.

Before you make any URL changes, it is crucial for you  to take the following steps for minimising the impact for your sites traffic:

• List where the old URLs are being linked within the site (your internal URLs)
• List where the old URLs are being linked from externally (people linking to your pages).
• Create a separate sitemap XML file for the new site URL structure
• Implement your 301 redirects using regex on your htacess file
• Make sure you exactly match your old pages to the relevant new pages when 301 redirecting. Most people would get lazy and redirect to the home or category level pages.
• Check for any pages not properly 301 redirected internally by  looking at the number of 404s and broken links applicable to your site.

Once you do change over the URLs start updating the old urls linking between your sites pages. Over the long term you would then need to contact the websites which have used the old URLs and ask them to update to the new version. Leave your old XML sitemap file applicable in both Bing and Google Webmaster Tools until you see them both indexing most (if not all) your new URL pages from your newly created sitemap.

Tools that I would use for the following steps could be XENU or screaming frog (my favorite).

Hope this helps

[wmwmeyer]

There are inbound links I am trying to evaluate how easy it would be to get some of those links changed. That is one major thing playing a role in all of this.

Our social media efforts have been pretty much none.

The existing pages are indexed which is why I was going to do the 301's even though I know they don't take all of the link juice I didn't know if the URLs would help make up for that or not The existing pages are bringing in traffic

There is another issue at hand that I forgot to mention and that is the fact that I'm ending up with duplicate content due to Joomla and can't figure out a way to get rid of stop it from happening other then possibly changing the URL's to SEO friendly ones. if the link is changed to http://www.rotaryvalve.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22 compared to the one I posted up top which was http://www.rotaryvalve.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22&Itemid=37 they both go to the same place and both are indexing and being linked to by people.

[GrouchyKids]

Not easy to answer without knowing:

• Are there inbound links to the pages in question?
• have the page been shared / liked etc.
• Do the existing pages appear to be indexed?
• Are you getting traffic from the existing pages?

301 redirect do not pass all link juice / umph through to the target page, so you may want to bear this in mind.

Hope this helps.

Justin

[Highland]

I wouldn't change your URLs. There will be a temporary hit while the bots catch up but the gain, if any, is minimal. Your current pages are already spidered, possibly have links, and can be found.

If you're bound and determined to do it, be meticulous in your 301s. Just be prepared for the temporary hit.