Redirecting site from html/php to wordpress
-
I've never come across this and haven't been able to really find anything that explains it very well. I want to get opinions before we make a definitive decision.
Here's the scenario...
I am working on a site that was built in HTML/PHP and some of the pages are ranking pretty well. (some page 1, but not number 1)
We are going to start using the Wordpress platform by year's end.
The pages that were built in html have been built a little spammy but they still rank. I just think they are keyword stuffed a little and not very "reader friendly" (I think the last person was spinning content).
So, we've built completely new content on our new pages and we've commissioned really good content writers for them. I will be handling the on-page SEO going forward so I know what to do there. My questions are this....
-
Should I 301 the old pages to the new pages with the better content? (old pages have the .html or .php extensions so www.example.com/keyword.php will become www.example.com/keyword-keyword
-
Is there any negative side to doing this since the content will be completely different then the old pages that are being 301 from. (Keywords are pretty much staying the same with the exception of minor variations. ie, www.example.com/red-cashmere-sweater.php to www.example.com/cashmere-sweater)
I ask this because I've moved sites before where I've just changed the location of the same content. I've never done it where the content is changing and so is the URL extension.
Thank you in advance for your help and guidance.
-
-
If you change the entire Address you'll also use 301. So that's why i think it is possible.
-
If you are talking about Change of Address, I thought that's for moving sites to a new domain. Our domain is staying the same. Thanks for your advice about links. We have a lot of citations pointing to the old extensions (they have 53 locations)
-
I would go with the suggestion of BrewSEO. 301 the pages that are on topic if they are off topic then no 301 redirect.
I would make sure that all incoming links to the old page get redirected to the new as soon as possible. If you know what the page is going to be, maybe ask them kindly already to update their links by the end of the year. This will help Google correct your website much faster. Also use webmaster tools. They also have a moving section I believe so insert your information there.
hope this helps you a bit
just my 2 cents
Kind regards
Jarno
-
Yes, the pages are the same topic but completely different content.
Thank you.
-
If the content is on the same topic (for example, a page about dogs to a page about dogs) than you should 301 it. It sounds like you are still ranking so Google has not penalized your old page and therefore it still has valuable link-juice.
Do not 301 the page If your new page is on an unrelated topic (for example, a page about dogs and a page about real-estate.)
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
-
I am temporarily moving a site to a new domain. Which redirect is best?
A client is having their site redeveloped on a new platform in sections and are moving the sections that are on the new platform to a temporary subdomain until the entire site is migrated. This is happening over the course of 2-3 months. During this time, is it best for the site to use 302 temporary redirects during this time (URL path not changing), or is it best to 301 to the temp. domain, then 301 back to the original once the new platform is completely migrated? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Matt3120 -
Googles tells com.au but the site redirects to com
Hey there, I have a website that it shows as a .com.au in the SERPs but it redirects to .com when you click on it. Is that ok in matters of SEO and why not if not.Kind Regards
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AngelosS0 -
Hacked Wordpress Site! So many 404s
So I had a site that I worked on get hacked. We eliminated the URLs, found the vulnerability (Bluehost!) and rolled back the site. BUT they got into the Google Search Console and indexed a LOT of pages. These pages are now 404 errors and I asked the robots.txt file to make them noindex. The problem is that Google is placing a "this site may be hacked" on the search listing. I asked Google to reevaluate it and it was approved by there are still 80,000 404 errors being shown and it still believes that the uploaded files that we deleted should be showing. Doing a site search STILL shows the infected pages though and it has been a month. Any insight would definitely be helpful. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mattdinbrooklyn0 -
Splitting and moving site to two domains - How to redirect
I have a client who is going to split their retail and wholesale business and rebrand the retail biz. So let’s say they are going to move everything from currentdomain.com to either retaildomain.com or wholesaledomain.com. The most important business for them is the retail site, so they want to pass on as much ranking power as they can from currentdomain.com to retaildomain.com. I see two choices here: We can 301 redirect all of currentdomain.com to retaildomain.com, and then redirect any wholesale pages to wholesaledomain.com. The advantage is that we can use GSC’s change of address tool to report the change to Google. The downside is that there is a redirect chain (2 hops) to wholesaledomain.com. Would this confuse Google? Or we can 301 redirect page by page from currentdomain.com to the appropriate page on either new site. This means no redirect chains but it also means that we can’t use GSC’s change of address tool. Which would you do and why? And is there another option that I'm missing? I appreciate any insights you can share.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rich.owings1 -
.Com version of my site is ranking better than .co.uk for my UK Website for branded search. 301 redirect mess
Dear Mozzers, I have an issue with my UK Website (short url is - http://goo.gl/dJ7IgD ) whereby when I type my company name in to google.co.uk search the .com version returns in Search as opposed to the .co.uk and from looking at open site explorer the page rank of the .com is higher than the .co.uk ?. Infact I cant even see the .co.uk homepage version but other pages from my site. The .com version is also 301'd to the .co.uk. From looking at Open Site Explorer, I have noticed that we have more links pointing to .com as opposed to .co.uk. Alot of these are from our own separate microsites which we closed down last year and I have noticed the IT company who closed them down for some reason 301'd them to the .com version of our site as opposed to the .co.uk but If I look in http://httpstatus.io/ (http status checker tool) to check one of these mircosites it shows - 301 - 302 - 200 status codes which to me looks wrong ?. I am wondering what it should read ... e.g should it just be a 301 to a 200 status code ?. My Website short url is - http://goo.gl/dJ7IgD and an example of some of 10 microsites we closed down last year which seems to be redirected to .com is http://goo.gl/BkcIjy and http://goo.gl/kogJ02 As these were redirected almost a year ago - it is okay if I now get them redirected to the .co.uk version of my site or what should I do ? They currently redirect to the home page but given that each of the microsites are based on an individual category of my main site , would it be better to 301 them to the relevant category on my site. My only concern is that , may cause to much internal linking and therefore I wont have enough links on my homepage ? How would you suggest I go about building up my .co.uk authority so it ranks betters than the .com- I am guessing this is obviously affecting my rankings and I am losing link juice with all this. Any advice greatly appreciated . thanks Pete
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PeteC120 -
301 redirect with /? in URL
For a Wordpress site that has the ending / in the URL with a ? after it... how can you do a 301 redirect to strip off anything after the / For example how to take this URL domain.com/article-name/?utm_source=feedburner and 301 to this URL domain.com/article-name/ Thank you for the help
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | COEDMediaGroup0 -
301 redirects
Hello, I want to ditch about 1000 pages of a 2000+ page site. I believe the 301 redirect thing is the way to go but my expertise is limited. Is there a way to do a blanket redirect ie if a user or search engine looks for a page thats not there it all gets redirected to the index page or do I have to do each one manually? Thanks Ian
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jwdl0 -
Will thousands of redirected pages have a negative impact on the site?
A client site has thousands of pages with unoptimized urls. I want to change the url structure to make them a little more search friendly. Many of the pages I want to update have backlinks to them and good PR so I don't want to delete them entirely. If I change the urls on thousands of pages, that means a lot of 301 redirects. Will thousands of redirected pages have a negative impact on the site? Thanks, Dino
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Dino641