404 and re directs from an old design to a new one
-
I have a directory that I am redesigning. Currently, the old directory is all 404 pages. I need to use the URL's in the old directory for the new one. Should I redirect all the old pages to the new pages? Or is it better to delete the old pages, let them de index - so that I can use those same URLs? I really need help with this.
-
It sounds like you are just moving the content to a new directory and not changing the filename, correct? If so you can handle that with a single line of code in your htaccess file assuming you are on a Linux server and have access to that file. Most content management systems will probably have some sort of plugin/module for that too.
Yes, redirect them so the pagerank earned from external links into the old URL will move on to the new URL. It is a simple thing to fix that could have a profound impact on rankings if those old pages had external links.
By the way, update all internal links so you are linking to the new URL instead of relying on the redirects to do that for you. This is just best practice and good housekeeping.
-
so all the link juice will go to the new URL's? Man that's going to be a lot of redirects. lol
-
Hi Tim,
If the pages you are going to replace are still content rich on a similar vertical (old blue widget to new blew widget) you can do a 301 redirect which will let the search engine know that the page has moved and it will also transfer any of the authority the old page(s) has.
Hope this helps.
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
-
Http urls on a new https website
Hi, If a site is quite new and setup as https from the beginning why would http variations exist? There are 301 redirects in place from the http to the https variation and also canonical tags pointing back to the http variation? This seems contradictory to me. I'm not sure why the http variations exist at all but they have gone to the trouble of redirecting these to the https variation indicating that it is the variation of choice but at the same time using a canonical tag that indicates the http variation is the original/main url? Thanks
Technical SEO | | MVIreland0 -
Server return 404 and 200 status
Dear All,
Technical SEO | | omverma
We have a website where we are showing some products. Many times it happens when we remove any product and add that again later. In our site, we have product list page and detail page. So if any product get deleted and client hits the detail page with deleted product url, then we are returning 404. Next time when that product will be available our server will return 200. I have two questions : 1. Is is right way to deal with deleted product ? 2. After deploying it, we observed that our keywords ranking is going down, is that really affect ? Thanks,
Om0 -
One simply question about disavow tool
Hi Guys, my website is under a negative seo attack. One simply question about disavow tools. Everyday I have to upload a file with the new bad backlinks (domains). The fact is that when I try to upload a new disavow report the tool continue to show me the file of the day before and If I upload the new file it replace the old one. So.... what I have to do? 1. Upload a new file with the backlink domain of the day that replace the old one
Technical SEO | | Italianseolover
2. Or upload a new file with the old backlinks plus the new one? Thank you very much.0 -
How much time for re-indexing ?
I was just checking Google Webmaster tools and I found 102 duplicate title pages. Just fixed them all now.
Technical SEO | | monali123
Shall I re-submit the site map again or how do we tell Google about the changes and then how much time does it take for them to clear SERPS cache and re-index re-count ?0 -
Why isnt my Site getting Re Crawled !!!
The last crawl for my website was done long back ! What is the use if you dont re-crawl ? My website is www.caraccessoriesdelhi.in I have corrected all the errors. When will you recrawl it ? This is absolutely not done ! The last crawl was done on 3rd May !
Technical SEO | | VarunBansal0 -
Moving a site from one server to another
Does moving a site's files from one server to another, with all URL's remaining the same, affect page rank? I am moving a site from one server to another. Everything will stay exactly the same, including URL's, file structure, etc. Will this affect page rank, domain importance, etc?
Technical SEO | | Bandicoot0 -
Getting a bunch of pages re-crawled?
I added noindex tags to a bunch (1,000+) of paginated category pages on my site. I want Google to recrawl the pages so they will de-index them. Any ideas to speed up the process?
Technical SEO | | AdamThompson0 -
Hundreds of 404 Pages, What Should I do?
Hi, My client just had there website redeveloped within wordpress. I just ran a crawl errors test for their website using Google Webmasters. I discovered that the client has about six hundred, 404 pages. Most of the error pages originated from their previous image gallery. I already have a custom 404 page set-up, but is there something else I should be doing? Is it worth while to 301 redirect every single page within the .htaccess file, or will Google filter these pages out of its index naturally? Thanks Mozers!
Technical SEO | | calindaniel0