Advice on strange URL problem
-
I'm considering doing some pro bono work for a local non-profit and upon initial review they have a number of serious issues but there is one in particular I'd like to check my thinking on.
The developer who set up the site some years ago implemented a javascript redirect on their root domain so that it redirects to:
This is wrong for all kinds of reasons and I want to recommend eliminating this redirect and getting rid of the 'wordpress' part of the path altogether. However, the site is quite established with good PR and they would take a hit by changing the path.
I'd do 301 redirects to the new URLs that would not have 'wordpress' in the path in addition to other remediation.
My question - is my thinking here good? It's worth it, right? The other option is just get rid of the weird redirect and keep 'wordpress' in the path but this seems unacceptable to me.
Any opinions?
-
Thanks, Andrew! I had done this for handfuls of pages at a time, but not an entire site and it had me concerned. I appreciate the advice!
-
Hi John,
Agree - sounds very messy!
With regard to any 'ranking drop' I really wouldn't worry about this either. I had the same concerns a few weeks ago when I redirected my entire website (an old keyword loaded domain to acornseo.com).
I did a quick audit of the site using Screaming Frog to get all the links, then 301'd each one individually to the new location. The process was very easy, the time it takes depends on the number of pages your website has.
Looking at the Google results after I made the change, I could see my new links appearing in the results, just below the old ones. After a few days the old ones had disappeared and the new acornseo.com links replaced them completely - in effect I had zero ranking downtime, and haven't seen any loss of position since the change over.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Andrew
-
OK, thanks for your advice.
-
I'm saying keep your URLs. You can move them but there's a short-term penalty for doing so. Proper 301s will keep it from being too bad but, as my mother likes to say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!
-
Thanks Highland. Are you saying you think keeping the 'wordpress' in the path is the way to go or would you get rid of it? Not sure what you mean when you say 'original URLs'.
-
Thanks, Andrew. Actually the entire site is in the wordpress folder and they don't use the blogging functionality. So if you visit the site with javascript disabled you get a blank page. The home page is actually http://domain.com/wordpress but the root domain (without the 'wordpress' attached) returns a 200 response code. It essentially just contains a javascript redirect. What a mess.
So, I was going to do exactly as you suggest but wanted to make sure it would be worth the hit in the search results and I wasn't just responding emotionally to the poor technical and aesthetic aspects of the set up.
-
I agree that keeping the original URLs is the better way to go (you'll lose some SEO momentum changing them). I also agree that a 301 from the root to the wordpress directory would be superior to a JS redirect. Googlebot is probably smart enough to figure that one out (especially if the site is indexed) but there's no reason not to do this and make sure.
-
Hi John,
Using the 'wordpress' name isn't ideal, and I would agree you could make it more user-friendly. Depending on what is actually in the subfolder, a standard 301 redirect from 'wordpress' to 'blog' should do the trick.
However, you could also consider moving the 'wordpress' folder to the root domain and getting rid of the javascript redirect. Then you have the website on the root. Moving Wordpress instances from one directory to another is relatively painless - get back to me if you need advice on that front.
Hope that helps,
Cheers
Andrew
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
-
SEO Elements for Canonicalized URLs?
I am helping a client with SEO for their ecommerce store. They have around 65 products, but close to 500 URLs all for those same products. Basically they have a bit of an index bloat problem but long story short restructuring was too much of a lift for them, so I got them set up with a canonical URL strategy to ensure all duplicate pages point to one "main" product page. Getting to the point: They also need an on-page overhaul. I've created keyword optimized titles, metas, H1s, etc. for each product. Do these elements need to be added to every single one of the 450+ product pages OR do I only need to add them to the 65 "main" product pages that everything else is pointing to, since that will ultimately be the page that gets crawled?
Technical SEO | | AJTSEO0 -
HTTP URLs Still in Index
One of the sites I manage was migrated to secure 2 months ago. XML sitemaps have been updated, canonical tags all have https:, and a redirect rule was applied. Despite all this, I'm still seeing non-secure URLs in Google's index. The weird thing is, when I click those links, they go to the secure version. Has anyone else seen weird things with Google not properly indexing secure versions of URLs?
Technical SEO | | LoganRay0 -
Strange keyword showing in GA
Hi All, Since last two days I am seeing a very strange keyword appearing in Google Analytics. Why such keyword appearing in GA? any idea? Please see keyword in attachment. Thanks ay6hH6z
Technical SEO | | Alick3000 -
SEO url best practices
We're revamping our site architecture and making several services pages that are accessible from one overarching service page. An example would be as follows: Services Student Services Essay editing Essay revision Author Services Book editing Manuscript critique We'll also be putting breadcrumbs throughout the site for easy navigation, however, is it imperative that we build the URLs that deep? For example, could we simply have www.site.com/essay-editing rather than www.site.com/services/students/essay-editing? I prefer the simplicity of the former, but I feel the latter may be more "search robot friendly" and better for SEO. Any advice on this is much appreciated.
Technical SEO | | Kibin0 -
I'm redesigning a website which will have a new URL format. What's the best way to redirect all the old URLs to the new ones? Is there an automated, fast way to do this?
For example, the new URL will be: https://oregonoptimalhealth.com/about_us.html while the old one's were like this: http://www.oregonoptimalhealth.com/home/ooh/smartlist_1/services.html I have redirect almost 100 old pages to the correct new page. What's the best and easiest way to do this?
Technical SEO | | PolarisMarketing0 -
Order of keyword usage in URL
Hi, I have been wondering for a few weeks if the order of keyword usage for a long tail keyword made a difference. Today I ran an on-page report here for a new page which is a review of a product. The report warned about the keyword usage in URL which made me question my knowledge about this. let's say the page is titled Razer Mouse Review my URL is www.example.com/review/razer-mouse I thought it was a bad idea to repeat the same word in a URL, that's why I categorized all my reviews under review directory and avoided using the word "review" more than once. Should I modify this url and make it www.example.com/review/razer-mouse-review Note: I see the report listed this under "moderate importance factors" and still gave the page A grade. any ideas appreciated!
Technical SEO | | Gamer070 -
HTML url extension
I've read some information about the extension of an url. But i couldn't find a clear answer. What is better for SEO, an extension with html or without? /make-money-online/how-to-make-a-million-dollars-in-1-year/ or /make-money-online/how-to-make-a-million-dollars-in-1-year.html/ Is there a difference between a normal website or a blog?
Technical SEO | | PlusPort0 -
301 redirect .htaccess problem
Can anyone explain to me why this doesn't work? Redirect 301 /category/diamond-pendants/nstart/1/start/(.*) http://www.povada.com/category/pendants/nstart/1/start/$1 Im trying to replace everything after /start/ and insert it into the new url. Thanks in advance.
Technical SEO | | 13375auc30