Relaunch - How to find URL's to keep
-
Hi,
During the process of redefining our business I'm planning a relaunch of our website. My goal is to restructure my content and URL structure. I have a lot of non relevant and not ranked content.
My question how I can find out the top 10 or top 20 URL's of my actual site that are worth to keep.
I'm not familiar with this kind of research...
Thanks in advance
Bastian -
Hi Bastian,
Finding urls to keep is simple. Just login to your Google Analytics and Check the tab "Content". You will find all the urls and their pageviews. Sort down the necessary urls.
Recommended: It is recommended to add 301 redirects from all the old urls to new urls. Also add a custom 404 page after the launch.
Login to webmaster tools to find more errors.
Regards,
Infant Raj
-
Hi Bastian
This process can look quite daunting at first, but can be quite easy and fun to do once you know how.
First, I always look at two criteria for redirecting a page - incoming traffic and incoming links. If a page has a decent amount of either, I will redirect it. If it doesn't, I let it 404.
Finding URLs with incoming traffic can be an easy one with Analytics. If you have Google Analytics, login to the dashboard and click on Traffic Sources -> Sources -> All traffic on the left-hand side. Once it's loaded, just below the graph you will see "Primary dimension" - at the end of this line click "other", then from the dropdown menu, click traffic sources -> landing page.
You'll now have a list of URLs that people have used to enter your site. Pick a time frame of about 3-6 months and see how many people have entered the site via that URL. If you have URLs with 5 or more visits (or whatever threshold you think is best), save the URL as one that will be redirected.
I think it is important to redirect landing page URLs as it is the very start of a user journey that people have used in the past. It can be off putting to see a 404 straight on entry, so ensuring that the user is taken to an appropriate page via a redirect is highly recommended.
Redirecting URLs that have been linked to the in the past can be an important step to take to ensure that you keep all of your link "strength" or "equity" when you relaunch. For this, we can use SEOMoz's Open Site Explorer.
Go into OSE and type in your site's URL. Once loaded, click the "top pages" tab. Export the results into a CSV and open that with Excel. Enable filters, which can be done by clicking "data" and then "filter" while having any of the top row cells selected, and then filter out results in the "inbound links" column to exclude results containing less than 2, 3, or 5 links, depending on your threshold.
You'll then be left with only the pages on your site that have links pointing towards them. Now, rather than just redirecting all those pages, it is worth checking each URL in open site explorer again to look at what links are going to those pages. This may take a bit of time, but this way you can ensure that you will only pass on links that you're happy with. You may have a page that has 5 inbound links, but on review you think those links are spammy. Don't redirect this page and you will not have the new site associated with these links.
Hopefully at the end of this you will have a good list of URLs you should redirect. Try and redirect them to the appropriate pages on your site for a good user experience The rest you can leave to 404. If some pages don't fit in the new structure but you want to keep for user or link reasons, redirecting them to the root domain is no problem. And to add, I've redirected thousands of URLs to a root domain before and have not had any adverse effects.
Remember to update your XML sitemaps and resubmit them to Google/Bing webmaster tools as well once you're done.
Hope this helps and all the best with your relaunch!
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 there a good tool for finding Duplicate Content?
Hi! Are there any recommendation voor Duplicate Content finder tools? Is it offered on MOZ (not the one that belongs to 'seo issues') or a different site?
Content Development | | Marketing-SurpriseFactory1 -
Google won't index my website because "certain conditions" weren't met
I found the answer on this -- interestingly, I had changed registrars and they didn't pull over the DNS information correctly. This caused the above issues. Once I identified this, I updated the DNS correctly -- at registrar and server -- and things worked fine.
Content Development | | newbyguy0 -
Updating Content - Make changes to current URL or create a new one?
I'm working with a content team on a job search guide for 2019. We already have a job search guide for 2018. Should we just edit the content of the job search guide for 2018 to make it current for 2019, which means the job search guide for 2018 would not exist anymore or should we keep the 2018 guide and just create a new web page for the 2019 guide that way both exist. We currently rank very well for the 2018 job search guide.
Content Development | | Olivia9541 -
Question About Embargo'd Dates and SEO Timeliness
Hello, this is a very specific SEO issue my company and I often have so we want to get a definitive answer for it. Let's say we're writing a guide about a product. Would we be better off releasing that guide as soon as we can (the information embargo date) or is it better to post that guide on the day the product officially releases for the public? We really don't know the answer here, because while we understand being first is very important, we wonder if timeliness with when people are searching for the information matters more. Thanks for all the help, Moz community!
Content Development | | TwinfiniteSEO0 -
What's brewing on YouMoz? (And how you can Help)
In the last year, we've searched for ways to make YouMoz more interesting, more exciting and more inviting for the Moz community. The blog really does belong to the community, for it's the place where many novel ideas are shared, discussed, and further developed. Aside from being a great place to share ideas, though, YouMoz is also the primary vehicle by which many now-household names in online marketing were discovered. (Many of the top posts on YouMoz eventually find their way onto the main Moz Blog.) YouMoz belongs to the community. The blog was created as a place for the community to share and engage around bright ideas, in addition to being a vehicle for provoking thought around new concepts, strategies and tactics. For both aspiring and established authors, YouMoz has become a popular destination in the online marketing space. In the quest to make YouMoz even better, we’ve come with a few ideas to ensure that everyone continues to feel as though they can contribute to the blog. Beginning today, we’re introducing what we hope becomes four common formats for YouMoz: My Story, Headsmacking Tips, Problem Solved and Here’s How: My Story: The name pretty much says it all. Share with the community an interesting story related to online marketing. The story could be funny, personal or informational. As long as it’s interesting, well-written, and a benefit to the community, we’d love to hear it. A great example of the type of post we’re looking for is Mike Ramsey’s From Zero to a Million: 20 Lessons for Starting an Internet Marketing Agency. Headsmacking Tip: We’re bringing this format, first shared by Rand years ago on the main blog, out of the mothballs. Simply share with the audience an awesome online marketing-related tip that could make their jobs easier. (Example:Headsmacking Tip #21: Write Better Headlines Than Anyone Else.) Problem Solved: Tell the audience how you solved a significant marketing problem, making it easier for you to do your job. Share the nitty-gritty details, and include any graphics or tips needed for the community to solve the problem for themselves. (Example: A Simple Guide to Overcoming Ad Blindness for Publishers.) Here’s How: This style of post is meant to be a little more wide-ranging, allowing you to share with the audience ways they can successfully deploy a technique, tactic, strategy, tool or anything else you’ve gleaned that might be of value to marketers. (Examples: How to Write Emails That Get Opened Every Time and The 10 Tools I Use to Monitor Social Media More Effectively. A big shout out to Katy Katz for the inaugural post in this category: Here’s How to Write an Email That Throws off a Whole Room’s Productivity.) Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? Don’t overthink it. Read our guidelines, then dive in and get started. Also, we’d love to hear what you think about these new formats. Plus, we welcome your comments or questions. Feel free to share your thoughts below
Content Development | | ronell-smith7 -
Same SEO Impact for: ''blog.domaine.com/'' and ''domaine.com/blog/
I would like to add a WordPress blog to my online store. My shopping cart is BigCommerce. My store URL is: http://www.furnacefilterscanada.com I know the ''BEST'' option will be to have a blog like this: http://www.furnacefilterscanada.com/blog/ But I don't thing it is possible on BigCommerce platforme. If I can have a blog with this sub-domaine: http://www.blog.furnacefilterscanada.com will it be a efficient for SEO? Thank you, BigBlaze
Content Development | | BigBlaze2050 -
Can I tap into everyone's creativity for a meme?
About a week ago there was an awesome YouMoz post entitled How To Use Memes to Build EASY Backlinks & Traffic. I was so inspired by this post to come up with something awesome. I have been thinking long and hard about it ever since then, even browsing meme sites, and I'm coming up with NOTHING. Our company, stadriemblems.com designs and supplies custom embroidered patches for uniforms, events, and things of that nature. I know that I know the niche the best, but I'm not good at funny. So maybe someone who's good at funny can come up with something without having to know all the ins and outs of the niche. I'd so greatly appreciate some suggestions. I'll give everyone who tries a thumps-up, even if it's not good!
Content Development | | UnderRugSwept0 -
Different pages with very similar H1's - will I get a penalty?
I currently have text articles about various topics on my site - for this example say I have written about "Negative Reinforcement". This article is live over a month now and getting listed on the first google page with an added keyword which the article is specifically related to. Now I want to create an infographic related to the same topic "Negative Reinforcement" - but I want to call the page this infographic will go on "Negative Reinforcement Infographic" while the article is currently called just "Negative Reinforcement". Neither page will have duplicate content from each other. The article is 2,000+ words so I don't want to throw more into it by adding on the infographic and I want to specifically create the infographic as linkbait and on a stand alone page. I am curious if adding another page with such a similar title and H1 have any negative effect ("dilute" the strength of the other article), for example will google take having two different pages with such a similar heading as potential keyword stuffing and penalise the site?
Content Development | | GavinC0