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 -
How long will old pages stay in Google's cache index. We have a new site that is two months old but we are seeing old pages even though we used 301 redirects.
Two months ago we launched a new website (same domain) and implemented 301 re-directs for all of the pages. Two months later we are still seeing old pages in Google's cache index. So how long should I tell the client this should take for them all to be removed in search?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Liamis0 -
All URLs in the site is 302 redirected to itself
Hi everyone, I have a problem with a website wherein all URLs (homepage, inner pages) are 302 redirected. This is based on Screaming Frog crawl. But the weird thing is that they are 302 redirected to themselves which doesn't make any sense. Example:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | alex_goldman
https://www.example.com.au/ is 302 redirected to https://www.example.com.au/ https://www.example.com.au/shop is 302 redirected to https://www.example.com.au/shop https://www.example.com.au/shop/dresses is 302 redirected to https://www.example.com.au/shop/dresses Have you encountered this issue? What did you do to fix it? Would be very glad to hear your responses. Cheers!0 -
How to handle potentially thousands (50k+) of 301 redirects following a major site replacement
We are looking for the very best way of handling potentially thousands (50k+) of 301 redirects following
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GeezerG
a major site replacement and I mean total replacement. Things you should know
Existing domain has 17 years history with Google but rankings have suffered over the past year and yes we know why. (and the bitch is we paid a good sized SEO company for that ineffective and destructive work)
The URL structure of the new site is completely different and SEO friendly URL's rule. This means that there will be many thousands of historical URL's (mainly dynamic ones) that will attract 404 errors as they will not exist anymore. Most are product profile pages and the God Google has indexed them all. There are also many links to them out there.
The new site is fully SEO optimised and is passing all tests so far - however there is a way to go yet. So here are my thoughts on the possible ways of meeting our need,
1: Create 301 redirects for each an every page in the .htaccess file that would be one huge .htaccess file 50,000 lines plus - I am worried about effect on site speed.
2: Create 301 redirects for each and every unused folder, and wildcard the file names, this would be a single redirect for each file in each folder to a single redirect page
so the 404 issue is overcome but the user doesn't open the precise page they are after.
3: Write some code to create a hard copy 301 index.php file for each and every folder that is to be replaced.
4: Write code to create a hard copy 301 .php file for each and every page that is to be replaced.
5: We could just let the pages all die and list them with Google to advise of their death.
6: We could have the redirect managed by a database rather than .htaccess or single redirect files. Probably the most challenging thing will be to load the data in the first place, but I assume this could be done programatically - especially if the new URL can be inferred from the old. Many be I am missing another, simpler approach - please discuss0 -
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 -
New site. How important is traffic for a new site? And what about domain age?
Hi guys. I've been building a new site because i've seen a real SEO opportunity out there. I'm a mixing professional by trade and so I wanted to take advantage of SEO to help gain more work. Here's the site: www.signalchainstudios.co.uk I'm curious about domain age. This site fairly well optimised for my keywords, and my site got pretty good content on it (i think so anyway). But it's no where to be seen on the SERP's (link at all). Is this just a domain age issue? I'd have though it might be in the top 50 because my site's services are not hard to rank for at all! Also what about traffic? Does Google want to see an 'active' site before it considers 'promoting' it up the ranks? Or are back links and good content the main factor in the equation? Thanks in advance. I love this community to bits 🙂 Isaac.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | isaac6631 -
How to make sure dev site is not index in wordpress and how would it be affected?
hi guys! I'm currently having a dev version of my site (dev.website.com) that once everything is done i would move the dev to the public domain (website.com). But since is a total duplicate content of my real site would it affect the seo? if so, i tried setting the reading privacy in wordpress so google would not index it but im afraid when i live it in the future and revert the setting back to normal it would affect the site seo. any opinion and suggestion on this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | andrewwatson920 -
Spammy sites that link to a site
Hello, What is the best and quickest way to identify spammy sites that link to a website, and then remove them ( google disavow?) Thank you dear Moz, community - I appreciate your help 🙂 Sincerely, Vijay
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vijayvasu0