Replacing a site map
-
We are in the process of changing our folder/url structure. Currently we have about 5 sitemaps submitted to Google.
How is it best to deal with these site maps in terms of either (a) replacing the old URLs with the new ones in the site map and (b) what affect should we have if we removed the site map submission from the Google Webmaster Tools console.
Basically we have in the region of 20,000 urls to redirect to the new format, and to update in the site map.
-
Another thought might be to place a noindex on the new pages to start with and as we migrate and 301 redirect the old to the new remove the noindex on the new pages ?
That can work but it's not an approach i would use. It seems like a lot of extra work, you run the risk of forgetting to remove the noindex tag on some pages, and also you may wind up not having pages properly indexed for a month.
If you publish a page today, Google may crawl the new page and see the noindex tag. You can then remove the noindex tag but Google may not recrawl the page for some time leaving your site without an indexed page.
As part of the process of publishing the page, I would 301 the old URL to the new URL immediately.
-
Another thought might be to place a noindex on the new pages to start with and as we migrate and 301 redirect the old to the new remove the noindex on the new pages ?
Thoughts ??
-
since the site has over 10,000 pages we need to make sure all redirects etc are set-up before we go live with the new URLs ?
Whether your site has 10 pages or a million pages you should ensure all internal links work without the need for redirection. Any old external links should be redirected to the correct page on your site if one exists. Otherwise you can allow the URL to 404 if there is not a current equivalent page.
Set up your site's 404 page so users are offered a basic "page not found" message along with your site's navigation and a search function. You should set up a log to track which URLs are generating 404 errors.
Prior to launching the site run a crawl diagnostic to help ensure nothing has been missed.
-
Perfect thanks. Just one final question, since the site has over 10,000 pages we need to make sure all redirects etc are set-up before we go live with the new URLs ?
What is the best way to go forward with regards launching the site ?
Should we launch the new pages and then go through the URLs redirecting them ?
Thoughts please ??
-
We are changing our site structure for two main reasons
-
Ease of functionality, and having the ability to target friendly URLs suitable for SEO
-
Plus we've a new CMS, that allows this custom written URLs
The current structure has too many folders that are too deep, and is becoming too un-manageable. The new CMS gives us totally control from one control panel.
I understand that we will loose some PR, but believe it will be for the better of the site and user experience.
-
-
We are changing our site structure for two main reasons
-
Ease of functionality, and having the ability to target friendly URLs suitable for SEO
-
Plus we've a new CMS, that allows this custom written URLs
The current structure has too many folders that are too deep, and is becoming too un-manageable. The new CMS gives us totally control from one control panel.
I understand that we will loose some PR, but below it will be for the better of the site and user experience.
-
-
Big question: are you changing folder/url structure for aesthetics or functionality? Often times it's not worth making such a large change in hopes of getting some SEO-friendly URL's, as the weight on SEO-friendly URL's isn't what it once was. And the headache involved, as well as the inevitable loss in traffic, is quite often not worth it at all.
With that said, refresh your entire sitemap with the new URL's once they are made. Remove all old urls.
IMPORTANT: setup 301 redirects, either using .htaccess or PHP (or whatever language your site uses), to redirect all old urls to the respective new urls. You will lose a fair chunk of PR during this change, but if you feel your site will benefit greatly from a structure change, then you will be willing to take the hit.
Don't leave any redirect un-turned. Then, you'll just have to wait it out while Google re-indexes your entire site trying to figure out your new url structure. Could take a week, could take months. All depends on what Google has valued your site as. For example, if CNN changed their entire URL structure, they probably would miss a beat. Smaller websites tend to take much larger hits in the SERP's.
So, just be sure it's a necessary action, trust me. And don't ever remove those 301's from your .htaccess as you never know what Google still has in their index for your site.
-
A sitemap should be a link representation of your site. It should contain a link to every page you wish to be included in Google's index.
How is it best to deal with these site maps in terms of either (a) replacing the old URLs with the new ones in the site map
Just make the switch. If a page no longer exists on your site, remove the link. If you create a new page on your site, add the link.
what affect should we have if we removed the site map submission from the Google Webmaster Tools console
For the most part, none. During the next crawl Google would look for your sitemap at your root address: www.mydomain.com/sitemap.xml. Google will also check your robots.txt file for a path to your sitemap file. If a sitemap is not located, it will crawl your site normally.
The primary purpose of a sitemap is to allow Google to become aware about new pages on your site it otherwise might not find. If your site offers solid navigation, a site map is not necessary at all.
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
-
My site is not being regularly crawled?
My site used to be crawled regularly, but not anymore. My pages aren't showing up in the index months after they've been up. I've added them to the sitemap and everything. I now have to submit them through webmaster tools to get them to index. And then they don't really rank? Before you go spouting off the standard SEO resolutions... Yes, I checked for crawl errors on Google Webmaster and no, there aren't any issues No, the pages are not noindex. These pages are index,follow No, the pages are not canonical No, the robots.txt does not block any of these pages No, there is nothing funky going on in my .htaccess. The pages load fine No, I don't have any URL parameters set What else would be interfereing? Here is one of the URLs that wasn't crawled for over a month: http://www.howlatthemoon.com/locations/location-st-louis
Technical SEO | | howlusa0 -
Site Redesign - Regaining Rankings
We just finished designing a whole new site that will hopefully convert better than our previous site and we are currently coding it. We are hoping to get the site out in the next month or two (or three!). We want to know what to expect in regard to our sales from SEO. If you successfully launched a site redesign and your conversion rate improved, can you answer this question? How long will it take for my rankings to regain their initial ranking and then hopefully rank even higher?
Technical SEO | | EcomLkwd0 -
Redirects in site map
I have a site with the ace/sef ( creates friendly URLS) in a large data base site. It creates a site map dynamically. Yet I realize one issue which I am trying to think through. I recently changed my urls to include an ID number example: homepage/houses/1134-big-blue-house The prior url was: homepage/houses/big-blue-house the original url above redirects to the new one with the ID like I want. However the site map has both URLS in it which go to same page I am not sure but it seems rather stupid to have the new URL and OLD redirected URL in the site map. Yet beside stupid I am wondering if this is duplicate content and will cause a penalty from the google bot. What is your opinion ?
Technical SEO | | aimiyo0 -
Site getting referral traffic from its self
Buon giorno from zero degrees C freezing fog Wetherby UK On this site http://www.collegeofphlebology.com i ran a referral report via Google Analytics and was surprised ro see referral traffic being counted from its own url, illustration here http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/referral-anomoly.jpg So my question is please how can a site get referral traffic from the same url? Grazie Tanto, David
Technical SEO | | Nightwing0 -
Help optimising this site
Hi I have been optimising this site http://seakayakdevon.co.uk/ which is a wordpress site since making changes to it recently the site is now indexed and appearing among its competitors. trouble is they still are placed higher rn the SE rankings. i wish to optimise for local search i.e on Google places etc. but the trouble is there is'nt a physical address for the business it is run from various coastal locations. any ideas how i can still market for local search- maps etc. I have done the following optimisation: sitemaps title tag, description tag improved content removed duplicate content an blocker pages replace image text and replaced with header tag improved page names - making them static any advice of guidance would be greatly appreciated- will the fatc its built in wordpress limit its ability to gain better ranking in the SE? Thanks
Technical SEO | | Bristolweb0 -
Is there a pinging tool to ping all sites at once
hi, i am just wondering if there is a tool that you can put on your toolbar that allows you to ping all the sites at once. The last thing i want to keep doing is to go through every single one and ping my article. I would like to find a tool that does it all for me, can anyone let me know if there is one out there. many thanks
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
How to produce no follow links on my joomla site
Hi i have been reading that if you have links going out of your site then this can damage your site, so i have been trying to find out, how i can do no follow links for some of the affliate sites that i have on my site. I have a couple of adverts on my site and i would like to turn these into no follow links while the rest of my internal links on my page are to stay follow links but in joomla i am not sure how to do this. can anyone please give me some advice
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Site Hosting Question
We are UK based web designers who have recently been asked to build a website for an Australian Charity. Normally we would host the website in the UK with our current hosting company, but as this is an Australian website with an .au domain I was wondering if it would be better to host it in Australia. If it is better to host it in Australia, I would appreciate if someone could give me the name of a reasonably priced hosting company. Thanks Fraser
Technical SEO | | fraserhannah0