How much pain can I expect if I change the URL structure of the site again?
-
About 3 months ago I implemented a massive URL structure change by 'upgrading' some of the features of our CMS
Prior to this URL's for catergorys and products looked something like this
http://www.thefurnituremarket.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=OX09
I made a few changes but din't implement it fully as I felt it would be better to do it instages as the site was getting indexed more thouroughly.
HOWEVER...
We have just hit the first page for some key SERP's and I am wary to rock the boat again by changing the URL structures again and all the sitemaps.
How much pain do you think we could feel if i went ahead and optimised the URL's fully?
and
What would you do?
-
Hi Robert,
I'm following up on older, unanswered questions. Can you tell us what you ended up doing with the site, and how much pain you went through, and any lessons learned? I'm interested to here what decision you made here.
Thanks!
-
As long as you 301 the pages you should be fine, however, if you are ranking why change it?
-
If you are serioulsy looking at changing CMS - then wait till you are closer to implementation - and then run it all in one go...
-
I am in 301 hell... :-S
With FP extensions you need to access the .htaccess file and I can't find a hosting provider who will touch it for me..
Hence the reason for my question.. I have found a way to add rel=canonical to the dynamic pages on the site but this will change how the site is indexed... also there is a way to amend the URL's to drop catergory.asp / product.asp/ productdetail.asp out of the URL and replace it with the actual product names..
Although other people I've asked seem to think google have overcome issues like this and that they will put less importance on URL's in the future.. the perfectionist in me wants to change everything so its all perfect..
What do you think?
-
Ah I didn't know you were changing CMS. If that's the case then things change a little. You have the option to 301 all your URL's that haven't been rewritten so that's probably your best bet as your duplicating your effort otherwise. I'd like to hear anyone else's view though
DD
-
Thanks for the reply Damien,
Thing is we are looking seriously @ magento and other CMS. We are on old technology here.. I make all the sitemaps and feeds myself (with excel)..
Still think its worth the hit or would you leave it until we got a news CMS?
-
I would take the hit - as I don't believe it will be massive and in the long-run you'd be better off as you'll soon come back to your original ranking position.
You're going to want to change them at some point in time so the sooner it gets done the better in my opinion.
DD
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
-
How can I remove Japanese hacker in my site
Hello, How can I remove Japanese hacker in my site?? here i have attached screen shot for it , http://prntscr.com/cmxmmx My website is hacked From long, please help out to solve this Problem Thnx in advance
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | poojaverify060 -
How will Google deal with the crosslinks for my multiple domain site
Hi, I can't find any good answer to this question so I thought, why not ask Moz.com ;-)! I have a site, let's call it webshop.xx For a few languages/markets, Deutsch, Dutch & Belgian, English, French. I use a different TLD with a different IP for each of these languages, so I'll end up with: webshop.de, webshop.nl, webshop.be, webshop.co.uk, webshop.com & webshop.fr They all link to eachother and every subpage that is translated from the other site gets a link as well from the other languages, so: webshop.com/stuff links to webshop.de/stuff My main website, webshop.com gets links from every other of these domain which Open Site Explorer as well as Majestic SEO sees as an external link. (this is happening) My question. How will Google deal in the long-run with the crosslinks coming from these domains? some guesses I made: I get full external links juice (content is translated so unique?) I get a bit of the juice of an external link They are actually seen as internal links I'll get a penalty Thanks in advance guys!!!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | pimarketing0 -
Can I get updated opinions on PR Web?
I saw Moz has discussed PR web in earlier posts, but they are mostly months to years old. I'm wondering if PR Web is a good service? A lot of my competitors use it, but it seems just like a paid link to me. If for whatever reason, PR Web is an approved loophole, does anyone have any suggestions on which plan to purchase? Thanks, Ruben
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
A site is using their competitors names in their Meta Keywords and Descriptions
I can't imagine this is a White Hat SEO technique, but they don't seem to be punished for it by Google - yet. How does Google treat the use of your competitors names in your meta keywords/descriptions? Is it a good idea?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | PeterConnor0 -
I need to find a website I can get guest blogs on for a removal website.
Hello everyone, I need to find a website I can guess blog posts on. Please can someone tell me where I need to look and how the process works: E.g Do i email the blogger saying I'll pay him? Also what categories would work well for removal website. www.van-plus.com to be precise. Thanks in advance!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | vanplus1 -
Site dropped suddenly. Is it due to htaccess?
I had a new site that was ranking on the first page for 5 keywords. My site was hacked recently and I went through a lot of trouble to restore it. Last night, I discovered that my site was nowhere to be found but when i searched site: mysite.com, it was still ranking which means it was not penalized. I discovered the issue to be a .htaccess and it have been resolved. My question is now that the .htaccess issue is resolved , will my site be restored back to the first page? Is there additional things that i should do? I have notified google by submitting my site
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | semoney0 -
Can anyone recommend a Google-friendly way of utilising a large number of individual yet similar domains related to one main site?
I have a client who has one main service website, on which they have local landing pages for some of the areas in which they operate. They have since purchased 20 or so domains (although in the process of acquiring more) for which the domain names are all localised versions of the service they offer. Rather than redirecting these to the main site, they wish to operate them all separately with the goal of ranking for the specific localised terms related to each of the domains. One option would be to create microsites (hosted on individual C class IPs etc) with unique, location specific content on each of the domains. Another suggestion would be to park the domains and have them pointing at the individual local landing pages on the main site, so the domains would just be a window through which to view the pages which have already been created. The client is aware of the recent EMD update which could affect the above. Of course, we would wish to go with the most Google-friendly option, so I was wondering if anyone could offer some advice about how would be best to handle this? Many thanks in advance!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | AndrewAkesson0 -
Competitors have local "mirror" sites
I have noticed that some of my competitors have set up "mirror" homepages set up for different counties, towns, or suburbs. In one case the mirror homepages are virtually identical escept for the title and in the other case about half of the content id duplicate and the other half is different. both of these competors have excellent rankings and traffic. I am surprised about these results, does anyone care to comment about it and is this a grey hat technique that is likely to be penalized eventually. thx Diogenes
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | diogenes0