Changing URL's for a website redesign
-
Hi folks,
We're redesigning our website and looking for some advice on how changing our URL's would affected our rankings. If the page URLs are changing how can we carry out redirects to avoid losing any SEO rank?
Thanks,
Ross
-
Hello Ross,
Here is a very good guide on 301 Redirects which you need to setup in order to keep your rankings, I think it will explain everything you need to know...
http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/redirection
Hope this helps!
-
Will the URL be the only change on the page?
If so, in the case of redirecting www.website.com/page1.html to www.website.com/page1/ then a simple redirect from URL A to URL B will be fine.
You may see fluctuations in rankings for a while, but it should settle down close to were you were previously.
If you are changing keywords in the URL, then you might see more fluctuation in ranking.
Also, spend some time contacting webmasters that are linking to your old URL and ask them to point to the new one. Google passes link juice via redirects, but it would be worth your wile to get as many links pointing directly to your pages without having to redirect.
Greg
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
-
Website Redesign and Migration to Squarespace killed my Ranking
My old website was dated, ugly, impossible to update and a mess between hard-coded pages and WP, but we were ranking #1 in the organic searches for our key words. I just redesigned my website using Squarespace. I kept most of the same text on the pages (for key words) and kept the same Meta-Tags and Title Tags for each page as much as possible. Once I was satisfied that I had done as much on-page optimization as I could, I changed the IP in our Domain Name Registry so that it would point to our new website on the Squarespace host. And our new website was live! ...Then I watched in dismay as our ranking fell into oblivion. I think this might have something to do with not doing any 301 redirects from the old website and losing all of my link juice. Is this the case? And, if so, how do I fix it? Our website url is www.kanataskinclinic.ca Thanks
Web Design | | StillLearning1 -
Community Discussion - How do you sync your marketing with your customers' experience?
Hi everyone! This week's Community Discussion comes from Tuesday's Moz Blog post by Mackenzie Fogelson, "Why Content Strategy Isn't Enough." Mackenzie says: "What you stand for as a company and a brand drives your products, your actions as a company, and also your marketing. More importantly, it will be the spark that ignites a connection with the people in your community. When it comes down to it, people will continue to have access to more: more content, more products, and more choice. The need to build meaningful relationships with your customers is not an optional approach, but a requirement. Identifying and communicating your purpose as a brand is just one part of making this happen. The rest is delivering a seamless, authentic experience." It's becoming more and more important to be aware of all aspects of your brand and your customers' experience. When you think of your content strategy, does it include all the potential customer touchpoints in their journey? Is this something you've already been doing, or is it a new idea to you? What's your strategy for making sure your online marketing efforts sync up with a visitor's or customer's experience?
Web Design | | MattRoney5 -
Website removed from Bing and Yahoo index
Hi, are website servicemanualrepairs.com was removed from Bing and Yahoo index, I emailed Bing via Webmaster tools they first said it was Backlinks I did look via at the inbound links tool to analyze the site's Backlinks I did find 20 links and used the Disavow tool, they said "I'm afraid but after careful and thorough investigation, your site still did not meet the Bing and Microsoft guidelines You may also refer to the things to avoid section of the Webmaster Guidelines for additional information. As an effect, the site is still blocked and it cannot be lifted" the website was in Bing and Yahoo index for 3 Years and only after the 20 Backlinks were added to the site it was de-index any help would be greatly appreciated Thanks
Web Design | | vista5211 -
Managing website content/keywords for wordpress site
We are in the midst of redesigning our website and have been working with freelance blog/content writers to increase the unique content on our site. We are finding it increasingly difficult to manage the topics/keywords as we continue to expand. Googledrive and google spreadsheets have been our primary tools thus far. Can anyone recommend a good tool that would allow us to manage content and blog posts for our site?
Web Design | | Tom_Carc0 -
URL Re-Mapping Question ?. Do I need to the theme of my business in my url struture even though GWT knows what my site is about
Hi All, I have currently planning to do some url remapping on my Hire Website as alot of most important pages are far to many levels deep from the root domain. This is also making my sitemap not tidy etc. In GWT, Google knows that the theme is my website is Hire as it's the top word. Therefore do I still need to use the word hire in all my new url categories / structures or not ? Examples http://goo.gl/BFmvk2 I was thinking of remapping to www.xxxxxxx.xco.uk/tool-hire-birmingham http://goo.gl/pC9Bdp I was thinking of remapping to www.xxxxxx.co.uk/cleaning-equipment Notice in the later example , I do not have the word rent in the url. Any advice is much appreciated thanks peter
Web Design | | PeteC120 -
Would you consider these website designs an upgrade?
Hello everyone, I've asked a few questions in here regarding website design, etc. So first I want to thank you guys for the responses, and second I want to apologize I hope I am not boring you guys. I just feel like this is a forum of qualified people and I value your opinions greatly. Now to my question, I am considering a redesign as we are not happy with our current site located http://www.studentdebtrelief.us/. We think it feels outdated, not structured well, no good call to actions, ten different fonts, blurry images, does have good integration with social media, boring and bland news page, etc. I just wanted some opinions on these other sites that were designed by the fellow we are considering hiring. I've gotten some feedback from a friend that he doesn't think they would be an upgrade from our current site, which I totally disagree with. Though I am the first to admit design/creativity is not my strong suit, so I don't value my own opinion on this very much either, lol. I am hoping I can get some insight from you guys here. Do you think the designs below are of higher quality than our current site? Would you be more inclined to continue reading these sites than our own? Is there one in particular you think is the best? http://www.jayhafling.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/archive.jpg http://www.jayhafling.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/zazachat.jpg http://www.jayhafling.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/jetpeppers3.jpg http://www.jayhafling.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/pbs_9001.png http://www.jayhafling.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/fidgetfeed.png http://www.jayhafling.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/haute.jpg http://www.jayhafling.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/worketc-732x1362.jpg Thanks for the help
Web Design | | DemiGR0 -
Question #1: Does Google index https:// pages? I thought they didn't because....
generally the difference between https:// and http:// is that the s (stands for secure I think) is usually reserved for payment pages, and other similar types of pages that search engines aren't supposed to index. (like any page where private data is stored) My site that all of my questions are revolving around is built with Volusion (i'm used to wordpress) and I keep finding problems like this one. The site was hardcoded to have all MENU internal links (which was 90% of our internal links) lead to **https://**www.example.com/example-page/ instead of **http://**www.example.com/example-page/ To double check that this was causing a loss in Link Juice. I jumped over to OSE. Sure enough, the internal links were not being indexed, only the links that were manually created and set to NOT include the httpS:// were being indexed. So if OSE wasn't counting the links, and based on the general ideology behind secure http access, that would infer that no link juice is being passed... Right?? Thanks for your time. Screens are available if necessary, but the OSE has already been updated since then and the new internal links ARE STILL NOT being indexed. The problem is.. is this a volusion problem? Should I switch to Wordpress? here's the site URL (please excuse the design, it's pretty ugly considering how basic volusion is compared to wordpress) http://www.uncommonthread.com/
Web Design | | TylerAbernethy0 -
Google Penalizing Websites that Have Contact Forms at Top of Website Page?
Has anyone else heard of Google penalizing websites for having their contact forms located at the top of the website? For example http://www.austintenantadvisors.com/ Look forward to hearing other thoughts on this.
Web Design | | webestate1