We've a client that wants to repurpose some of the content on there site but not lose rankings. However its changing the content to an alternative to ....

[SDOwner]

The Current URL Example would be test.co.uk/prodcut-catogory/product-1 . This side of the business is being sold however they have products elsewhere in the range that can be used as alternatives to the product range that will be moved, so they want to amend these pages with an " alternative " slant.

Example idea would be to change to the following : test.co.uk/prodcut-catogory/alternative-to-product-1, trying not to change the URL to much, keeping the majority of the content the same but adding new copy stating the benefits of using the alternative product. So it becomes a comparison between the two. I appreciate I will have to amend the URLs, titles, meta, H1s, add new copy & preform a 301's.

Option  2

Simply write a second page which is all brand new content talking about it being an alternative to the products and doing a 301 from the original page but not amending that.

Be great to get peoples feedback on this approach and if there is anything else that I could do to minimise the drop in rankings once I complete the changes.

Thank you

D

[SDOwner]

Thank you very much and yes helps very much, I feel I just needed to sanity check my thoughts.

[moon-boots]

Hello D,

Option 2 would undoubtedly result in a change in rank. That change could be positive or negative depending on the content of the new pages, so if you're going to use this method you need to make sure that the content is on par.

As for Option 1, so long as you 301 redirect the old pages to the new ones and add copy, you shouldn't see a fall in rank. If anything, the added content may boost your rank depending on the quality.

Either way, so long as you do so carefully and correctly, both methods could work. Personally I would opt for Option 1 as it seems to be the least labour intensive and has a more predictable outcome on your rank.

I hope that helps!