Do I need Redirects?
-
I've recently changed my old static website to a WordPress one. I'd like to know what do do (if anything) about my old links.
For example a page on my old site was: www.iainmoran.com/corporate-magician.html - now I'm using WordPress, the url is:
www.iainmoran.com/corporate-magician/My question is, do I need to set up redirects on these old pages (which no longer exist or will Google eventually re-crawl my site and update the links themselves?
I'm using the Yoast SEO Plugin for WP and it creates a sitemap, which of course will have my new pages on. But don't want Google to penalise me for having broken links, etc.
Many thanks,
Iain.
-
Hi Iain- that's what this community is all about isn't it great! I take it the specific urls you mention above you mean is it ok to redirect to a page with a completely different name? The answer is yes if that is the new location of that page then your redirect is absolutely fine.
I have had a quick check and your redirects are setup fine well done - happy seoing
-
I've finished doing the redirects and they all seem to work
When setting them up, I've used the full url (including http://www.) for both the "source" and "target" url's.
I originally had a page: http://www.iainmoran.com/mailing-list.html, but this is now:
http://www.iainmoran.com/newsletter/Hope this was the right way to do it?
Thanks again - it's such a relief knowing there are kind people who are willing to help.
Iain.
-
No problem Iain - firstly I would still create the redirects from your old html pages to their new locations as you rightly say there will be other sites with old links. You wouldn't want potential visitors/customers thinking your site is no longer there or down because they found it via a redundant link..
Secondly I wouldn't worry about doing anything regarding the current redirects - if you type any of your pages without a trailing slash you will see you are redirected to one with a trailing slash essentially reducing duplicate content for you.
Have a look at this article as to why it is something you don't need to worry about changing - http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/to-slash-or-not-to-slash.html
-
Thanks so much, Matt & Keri,
I've just installed the plugin and looked in Google to check which of my old (html) pages were indexed and amazingly it appears that there are none. It was a few weeks ago since I launched the new site, but certainly a few of the old pages appeared in Google Search results a few days ago.
I guess it's still worth doing though as there will be other sites with the old links on?
I notice that in my first SEOMoz crawl report it mentions that I have a 301 Redirect (which I didn't set up) going from: http://www.iainmoran.com/close-up-table-magic
To this: http://www.iainmoran.com/close-up-table-magic/
Is this something that I should deal with and if so, how?
The support here is amazing and I'm very grateful to you all.
Iain.
-
Hi Keri - I agree so just added the link to redirection plugin to my reply - should make Iain's life easier..
-
Hi Iain
You don't need to create your old pages again just create 301 redirects in your .htaccess file which can be done using Yoast plugin - http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/#files
Here is SEOMoz's guide to redirection - http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/redirection
Here is a redirection plugin for Wordpress just enter old url and new one you want it to point to and it will do the work for you - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/
-
I'd suggest the redirection plugin for Wordpress. You can easily redirect the missing pages to the correct pages without having to create any pages. It also logs 404s for you, and you can create redirects from the 404 log
-
Thanks Matt,
These pages no longer exist on my server so I should create the pages again - each page just having the redirect code that goes to the new version of each page?
Thank you,
Iain.
-
If you have content that is indexed in Google and has moved to a new location due to a site change such as this then I would recommend that you place 301 redirects from your old pages to the new corresponding ones..
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
-
Canonical urls - do my web pages need them?
Hello, I'm going round in circles with this issue, so hopefully someone can help... The Moz crawl of my website lists a number of pages as "missing canonical url". The pages are all different and do not have similar content. Do I need to add a canonical url to each page? My agency quoted the following (x referencing this page: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/consolidate-duplicate-urls) list itemYou would use Canonical URLs if: list item"...you have a single page that's accessible by multiple URLs, or different pages with similar content (for example, a page with both a mobile and a desktop version), Google sees these as duplicate versions of the same page." list itemThis is not the case here and so we would not propose to change anything. We could add Canonical URLs if the client feels that it is critical which occurs an additional cost. Any help / advice much appreciated. Thanks
Technical SEO | | rj_dale0 -
Domain forwarding or redirects for SEO?
Hi all! A client of mine owns several top level domains which are not in use, let's call them example.nu, example.de, example.net and so on. The current website is example.com.
Technical SEO | | JHultqvist
When checking the technical status of the unused domains I realized that all but one are forwarded (via DNS) to example.com and only one has a 301 redirect. Should I redirect all of them by means of 301 or let them stay forwarded? Very few of the domains have any other sites linking to them. Any thoughts would be really appreciated! Jesper0 -
Javascript is redirecting search bots to mobile
Here is the javascript I am using to send users to the mobile version of my website: This is causing major issues in Bing and Yahoo as the mobile website is the only thing ranking. I'd love any help dissecting this issue. Thanks in advance.
Technical SEO | | ShawnW0 -
Is it needed to use http:// or not?
Hi, When doing link building and getting my URL to other websites, is it necessary that the other websites include http:// before the domain? Example: I want to increase the number of links to my site www.example.com . When I ask other websites to add a link to my site, should I ask them to use http://www.example.com or is www.example.com enough (without http://)? Or it really does not matter? Thanks in advance, Sam
Technical SEO | | Awaraman0 -
.htaccess redirects
I've done some research but can't find a good answer to this question. Here's my situation: Site redirects from example.com to www.example.com just fine. However, it doesn't work so well for internal pages. My site incorrectly redirects (non-www) example.com/page2 to www.example.com when it should instead go to www.example.com/page2 So I need a method to redirect non-www internal pages to www versions. Currently I have this in my .htaccess - do I need to modify the rules? RewriteEngine on
Technical SEO | | 3plains
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.example.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L] Thanks0 -
301 Redirecting weird URLs with % in them
I've been working on redirecting links reported as 404 in Google webmaster tools. I've stumbled upon 41 URLs that Google is reporting as 404 that include a '%' in the URL, but I don't know how to redirect. Here is an example: URL: bond_information.htm%20Surety%20Bond%20Information,%20with%20FAQ Attempted redirect: redirect 301 /bond_information.htm%20Surety%20Bond%20Information,%20with%20FAQ http://www.mysite.com/ Unfortunately, after implementing the redirect, http://www.mysite.com/bond_information.htm%20Surety%20Bond%20Information,%20with%20FAQ still resolves a 404 error. Anyone successfully fix these errors using Apache .htaccess?
Technical SEO | | TheDude0 -
Redirects 301
Hello, I need to reedirect a URL of a page that I have in my site (http://digitaldiscovery.com.pt/servicos-de-marketing-digital/publicidade-online/) to a new URL with SEO porpuses. Whats the best way to this? I use Wordpress btw. Tks in advance! PP
Technical SEO | | PedroM0 -
Question concerning a 302 Redirect
Hi! I've already done some research on redirects, but I still have a question concerning a 302 redirect implemented at the homepage of a website. The Website www.domainA.com has a 302 redirect to www.domainA.com/content/.... Also all subsequent pages have the /content/ directory in their URLs: e.g domainA.com/content/products First thing I was wondering about, was the use of a redirect to a new site using an additional directory /content/... Why would anyone do this? Would it be enough to replace the 302 with a 301 redirect, or would you recommend to change the entire structure and eliminate this /content/ directory? The most logical structure would be www.domainA.com/products/.., and not www.domainA.com/content/products, right? Second thing: Given that 302 means temporary redirect, what are the actual implications when redirecting from domainA.com to domainA.com/content? I've heard that 302 redirects don't pass linkjuice and are detrimental for the site's rankings... What are the actual implications concerning the example above (302 redirect from domainA.com to domainA.com/content ? Would be great to get some advice about the first problem and maybe some insights about the second one concerning 302s in general. Thanks in advance! Cheers, Chris
Technical SEO | | adwordize0