How to keep social sharing if we change the URL ?

[Adviso]

Hi,

We want to change the URL of the blogposts. We want to remove the date, so the URL ...

websitename.ca/blog/2012/02/04/name-of-the-article/   would become websitename.ca/blog/name-of-the-article/

For SEO link juice it's OK because we will implement 301 redirect on all URL. But we have many Like, Google + and Tweet on our articles.

Is there a way we can maintain our social share (Facebook, Twitter and G+) for each URL if we change them ? We are using Wordpress and we have around 1 500 blogpost.

Thanks for your time

[Adviso]

Thanks Anthony,

I also saw this blogpost on Search Engine Watch. We will try do to it this way.

Thanks

[Adviso]

Thanks Anthony,

I also saw this blogpost on Search Engine Watch. We will try do to it this way.

Thanks

[Adviso]

Hi matt,

Thanks for your time.

We don't worry for 301 redirect. We will do all the 301 redirect page to page directly on the htaccess.

What I'm worriyng is to lose all the social share (like, tweet, G+) on our blogposts...and we have a tons of social share.

Can you manage this with your plugin ?

[MattAntonino]

If this is Wordpress, use Dean's Permalink Migration plugin:

http://www.deanlee.cn/wordpress/permalinks-migration-plugin/

This will redirect all your current posts to the new format so you don't have to change a thing.

I recently moved the permalinks for a blog with over 500 posts and it literally took 10 minutes.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Ahh I see - if this is what they were referring to, I did misunderstand

[anthonydnelson]

Hi Adviso,

I've dealt with a few massive URL changes over the past year and reluctantly had to let the social shares go and just start over again. When you are dealing with thousands of pages, it simply is not going to be worth the time and effort needed to transfer them all over.

Ultimately, they are just a number that is displayed on your page and have yet to prove any significant value. If the content is good and still relevant, it will be shared again. Social Proof is nice, but good content doesn't need it. People will recognize it on their own.

This is the best article I have found on how to do it for each social network:

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2172926/How-to-Maintain-Social-Shares-After-a-Site-Migration

Good luck on finding a solution that works for you.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

If you have a 301 in place, as soon as someone clicks on a link from a social site, it will take them to the new page anyway. After the change has been made, you just start sharing the new pages as you have been doing previously.

Or have I misunderstood the question?

Andy