Slug redirect
-
Hi All,
I'm facing a small yet big problem on one of my sites that I'll try to explain:
I have a site with thousands of URL's, all with an odd link structure, like index.php/modules?=name=Video , etc I want to build a proper link structure and for that I'll have to replace that links. My question is:
1. Will I have any relevant SEO problem to do 301 redirects from the old links to the new?
2. Should I do it all at the same time or do it by parts?
3. What options do I have to avoid give not found errors / redirects for the old links?Thanks for the help.
-
Hi Antoine,
Since this is a really big project, you may want to consider outsourcing it. The biggest part of the project is creating a database (or spreadsheet) of all the old page URLs and their new corresponding page URLs. That work doesn't require much skill. So, you may be able to save tons of time hiring a contractor through odesk (or some other site) and it wouldn't have to cost a lot.
Kurt Steinbrueck
OurChurch.Com -
Hi,
Thanks for your feedback.
It's going to be a little hard to redirect all at the same time because the structure is really, really big, however we will proceed accordingly.Cheers!
-
Ditto on those points.
-
I agree with Lesley for all three.
-Kurt Steinbrueck
-
Hi answers to questions below:
1. Will I have any relevant SEO problem to do 301 redirects from the old links to the new?
- If you using 301 redirects to new URLs you should not have any issues, its time consuming and no easy work around since you need to point old urls to new ones but definitely wont loose any rankings.
2. Should I do it all at the same time or do it by parts?
- If you are changing all the urls then do it at once.
3. What options do I have to avoid give not found errors / redirects for the old links?
- Use webmaster tools to assist you with not found errors. I have switched from a static html php site to Wordpress about 2 years ago with approx 2000 pages indexed. Im still receiving not found errors therefore its a good idea to monitor this daily and fix asap.
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
-
CGI Redirects
Trying to 301 old legacy files like oldsite.com/green/red.cgi/blue/ using this htaccess code: Redirect 301 /green/red.cgi/blue/ http://www.newsite.com/summary-page/
Technical SEO | | SoulSurfer8
Instead it's redirecting to: newsite.com/red.cgi/blue/ FYI oldsite.com's htaccess file does not have any global 301 rules that would conflict Does anyone know if cgi files require a different 301 syntax? Thanks!0 -
Redirects - How Best to do this ?
Hi I am looking to close Website A which has many pages. I would like to keep the home page and add some great content to it with a link pointing to Website B. As for all the other pages excluding the home page , how is it best to approach them on Website A. Should I redirect them all to the home page of Website A which will tell Google thoose Pages are no longer needed and to prevent the visitors from seeing a 404? My Main aim here is to not lose any visitors to Website A by sending them to Website B but also to hopefully pass any Page strength from Website A to Website B Thanks Adam
Technical SEO | | AMG1000 -
Mobile URL parameter (Redirection to desktop)
Hello, We have a parallel mobile website and recently we implemented a link pointing to the desktop website. This redirect is happening via a javascript code and results in a url followed by this paramenter: ?m=off Example:
Technical SEO | | echo1
http://www.m.website.com redirects to:
http://www.website.com/?m=off Questions: Will the "http://www.website.com/?m=off" be considered duplicate content with "http://www.website.com" since they both return the same content? Is there any possibility that Google will take into consideration the url ending in "/?m=off"? How should we treat this new url? The webmaster tools URL parameter configuration at the moment isn't experiencing problems but should we submit the parameter anyway in order not to be indexed or should we wait first and see the error response? In case we should submit this for removal... what's the best way to do it? Like this? Parameter: ?m=off Does this parameter change page content seen by the user? - doesn't affect page content Any help is much appreciated.
Thank you!0 -
Removing Redirected URLs from XML Sitemap
If I'm updating a URL and 301 redirecting the old URL to the new URL, Google recommends I remove the old URL from our XML sitemap and add the new URL. That makes sense. However, can anyone speak to how Google transfers the ranking value (link value) from the old URL to the new URL? My suspicion is this happens outside the sitemap. If Google already has the old URL indexed, the next time it crawls that URL, Googlebot discovers the 301 redirect and that starts the process of URL value transfer. I guess my question revolves around whether removing the old URL (or the timing of the removal) from the sitemap can impact Googlebot's transfer of the old URL value to the new URL.
Technical SEO | | RyanOD0 -
How can I perform this 301 redirect?
I am working on a site for a colleague and have installed wordpress on their server in the wp directory, they want the root domain redirecting to the wp directory but everything i have tried seems to throw up errors. i need sample.co.uk to redirect to sample.co.uk/wp/ no matter which html file they are trying to access on the root of the sample.co.uk site help?
Technical SEO | | GrassRootsSEO0 -
Will a 303 redirect hurt us?
Our membership based website is using a 303 redirect to handle the redirection of users back to the login page when those users try to access a page behind the logged in firewall. Said another way, if a user is not yet logged in, we redirect them to the login page using a 303 redirection. Unfortunately, Googlebot get this redirection too and after a recent audit, we're thinking this isn't the best way to handle this. For pages which require a user to login first, should we: A) index and 303 redirect to the login page (what we are currently doing) B) index and 302 redirect to the login page C) noindex those pages D) Remove any special treatment and let Google figure it out. Thanks in advance for your help! David
Technical SEO | | voicesdotcom0 -
Redirects
Hello, My question is: how important is it to wait for the a redirect to get seen and cached before you take down the old page? More in depth: my old platform has seriously limited my ability to add sitemaps and make edits to htacces. I just want to change nameservers (which will delete everything on there) and upload the htaccess is that alright? Another way of saying it: when redirecting a page, is it necessary for google to see the old page before it is deleted? Thanks Tyler
Technical SEO | | tylerfraser0 -
How do 301 redirects affect rankings?
Scenario: example.com/red-shoes gets 301 redirected to example.com/brown-boots because we have stopped selling red shoes and now only sell brown boots (which is a fairly new page with no authority). the red-shoes page ranked well for "red shoes" and "footwear". Will Google still index and show the red-shoes url in the SERPs? Will the "red shoes" and "footwear" keywords still rank well? Or does the redirected/new boots page need to properly support these keywords? The boots page has inherited the juice from the shoes page, but how does it help the boots page rank well? Only for keywords that both pages targeted, like a general "footwear" type keyword? Thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | akim260