undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Case Studies
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • MozCon

      Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • Case Studies

      Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. Digital Marketing
  3. Web Design
  4. Switched from Wix to Wordpress dreaded hashtag URL

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Switched from Wix to Wordpress dreaded hashtag URL

Web Design
3
3
3.2k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • limited7
    limited7 last edited by Feb 2, 2016, 10:29 PM

    Recently took over managing a site for a non-profit which was using the dreaded Wix. Switched over to Wordpress but now Google still has the old URL's with the hashtag.  Can't forward them in .htaccess and don't want to add javascript for fear of slowing down load time.

    I found a solution that seems like it will take hours and hours of work. I found the solution at http://www.thedriversgarage.com/web-technology/redirecting-hashbang-urls-wix-urls/ but it seems like it would take hours with all the URL's.

    I submitted an XML sitemap in Google webmaster tools.

    My question is, how serious could this effect SEO for my site?  Google accepted the new sitemap but still has the old URL's in SERP. How long does this generally take to remove? Will the hashtag URL's penalize the site for duplicate content? If so is there a way to tell Google the homepage without hashtags is the page with original content? Sort of like the rel=canonical tag which I know wont work as the hashtag URL's all redirect to the homepage so they will all have the tag.

    Does Google ignore the hashtag?  Could there even be a benefit to this, possibly the homepage getting more page authority due to the redirects?  How serious is this?  Thanks in advancing.

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • lcallander
      lcallander last edited by Jun 11, 2016, 5:44 PM Jun 11, 2016, 5:44 PM

      I'm in the same boat, and even tried the DRIVERS GARAGE solution (which is also posted on quite a few other blog sites).  Unfortunately, that did not work for me.  Neither did the REDIRECTION WP plugin, nor did editing my .htaccess a zillion different ways.  Heck, I even tried creating directories and html files with embedded java.

      Here is the only redirection that DID WORK for me (as indicated it would by Peter):

      JAVASCRIPT

      (1) Create a Javascript file with this code:

      var hashesarr = { "#!old-news/chi3":'/new-page/', 
      "#!another-news/dkc8":'/another-new-page/', 
      "#!something-old/eckje8":'/something-new/' };
      for (var hash in hashesarr) {
      var patt = new RegExp(hash);
      if (window.location.hash.match(patt) !== null) {
      window.location.href = hashesarr[hash]; 
      } 
      }

      (2) Save that file to your theme's child folder (so it doesn't get overwritten in the future by theme or Wordpress updates.
      I saved my file here: \wp-content\themes\aweseometheme-child\

      (3) In your SEO Plugin, or wherever you can edit the home page's HEAD file, add this code:

      (4) Test, make changes, try again and PRESTO!

      As a disclaimer, I have not yet tested to see how this will affect SEO Pagerank or Google redirects.  I'm guessing I will still have to implement the Sitemap with the UGLY url's per the DRIVERS GARAGE.  But all my client really cared about was that the client's who bookmarked specific pages, or had links pointing to deep pages would be redirected properly.

      MY AHA ANSWER WAS FOUND HERE:
      http://www.simosh.com/article/cbgaifec-301-redirect-from-wix-to-wordpress.html
      (Alex Nikitenko is a genious!)

      AND JAVASCRIPT INSTRUCTION HERE:
      https://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Javascript

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • topic:timeago_earlier,4 months
      • Mobilio
        Mobilio last edited by Feb 5, 2016, 7:00 PM Feb 3, 2016, 9:21 AM

        Tuff situation. Why? Browser didn't sent # and everything behind it to the server.

        So if you trying to get url as http://www.example.com/#!my-super-duper-url
        Browser will sent to the server request for http://www.example.com/ and server will process it. But full url that browser want is also included #! fragment. This mean that you can't make .htaccess redirect, nor some server side redirects for the moment.

        So same hurt also all bot and crawlers (Including Moz Roger!). And there was solution:
        https://developers.google.com/webmasters/ajax-crawling/docs/specification?hl=en
        but later this solution was deprecated:
        https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.bg/2015/10/deprecating-our-ajax-crawling-scheme.html

        And this make things complicated. For now they still support old solution so will be OK for bots. Probably for some users that comes from bookmarks, emails and/or other traffic sources can have hard times. Because will be redirected to "homepage". So maybe combination of both methods (JS redirector + your actual method) can save the day for humans and bots.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • 1 / 1
        1 out of 3
        • First post
          1/3
          Last post

        Got a burning SEO question?

        Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


        Start my free trial


        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.

        • See all categories

        Related Questions

        • JustinMurray

          WordPress Category page title h1 or h2

          Hi friends, I know this is a minor technical change, but we are in an extremely competitive market and I don't want to have any points against us. On our WordPress Category pages i.e. http://www.domain.com/category/�tegory-title%/ I looked at the code behind the the Title of the category page, which is "Browsing: %Category Title%" The code is an h2. I look at the posts in the category archive below, and those are also h2's. The theme preview is here and you can click on Entertainment - Reviews to see exactly what I'm referring to - http://themeforest.net/item/smartmag-responsive-retina-wordpress-magazine/full_screen_preview/6652608 I changed the code for the "Browsing: %Category Title%" to h1, which I believe is more consistent and standard formatting. 1. Is this a correct technical on-page optimization? 2. Would it be beneficial to remove "Browsing"?

          Web Design | Nov 8, 2015, 3:57 PM | JustinMurray
          0
        • CamiloSC

          Website Redesign - What to do with old 301 URLs?

          My current site is on wordpress. We are currently designing a new wordpress site, with the same URLs. Our current approach is to go into the server, delete the current website files and ad the new website files. My current site has old urls which are 301 redirected to current urls. Here is my question.  In the current redesign process, do i need to create pages for old the 301 redirected urls so that we do not lose them in the launch of the new site? or is the 301 command currently existing outside of our server so this does not matter? Thank you in advance.

          Web Design | Jun 8, 2015, 1:26 PM | CamiloSC
          0
        • donsilvernail

          Yoast focus keywords for portfolio post types in WordPress

          This one is for the WordPress optimization crowd! Portfolios are used to display work. I have a question about best seo optimization techniques. 1. Portfolios can be used to display many different types of work, for me it either original web designs from scratch, WordPress redesigns, or importing a current website into WordPress. What is the best practice for keywords for  multiple portfolios that are in one category. for instance WordPress Redesign. If I have 5 WordPress redesign portfolio posts is it good practice to use WordPress redesign for all 5 portfolios or should they use variations? Yoast gets angry when the same focus keyword is used multiple times. 2. Should portfolios even be indexed? Since this is how I attract new customers I would think yes but am I giving too much exposure to my client and not enough to my business. I guess this will depend on titles and meta descriptions. A discussion on best practices here is what I am really looking for. What is your advice and opinion on the matter.

          Web Design | May 31, 2015, 3:20 PM | donsilvernail
          1
        • soobumim

          Wordpress - redirecting tags

          I just ran a webmaster tool from Yoast SEO premium and notice I have a lot of problems with tags (restricted-robots-txt) For example : http://www.soobumimphotography.com/tag/wedding-group-photo/ Do I have to redirect to http://www.soobumimphotography.com/wedding-group-photo/ Should I do this to each and every posts Thank you

          Web Design | Mar 28, 2014, 8:42 AM | soobumim
          0
        • ScottImageWorks

          How to bounce back after a new url & new site design?

          About a month ago, my company changed domains (from the long-established www.imageworksstudio.com to the new www.imageworkscreative.com) and also did a complete overhaul of our site.  We tried to do everything necessary to keep Google happy as we went through this change, but we've suffered a drastic loss of both rankings and traffic. I know that can happen as a result of a redesign AND as a result of a new domain, but I'm wondering how long you would expect it to take before we bounced back and also, what can we do in the meantime to improve?

          Web Design | Sep 3, 2013, 11:20 AM | ScottImageWorks
          0
        • netviper

          Question Mark In URL??

          So I am looking at a site for a client, and I think I already have my answer, but wanted to check with you guys. First off the site is in FLASH and HTML.  I told the client to dump the flash site, but she isn't willing right now. So the URLS are generated like this. Flash: http://www.mysite.com/#/page/7ca2/wedding-pricing/ HTML: http://www.mysite.com/?/page/7ca2/wedding-pricing/ checking the site in Google with a site:mysite, none of the interior pages are indexed at all. So that is telling me that Google is pretty much ignoring everything past the # or ?. Is that correct? My recommendation is to dump the flash site and redo the URLS in a SEo friendly format.

          Web Design | Jul 19, 2013, 12:53 PM | netviper
          0
        • petewinter

          Missing Meta Description Tag - Wordpress Tag

          I am going through my crawl diagonostics issues and I have lots of "Missing Meta Description Tags". However when I look at the url's they are Wordpress Tags, which do not have a meta description. Shall I just ignore these errors or should I find a way to add a meta description? Is it important?

          Web Design | May 11, 2013, 2:14 PM | petewinter
          0
        • DonnieCooper

          Wordpress vs. mvc framework

          What's the benefits of choosing an mvc framework such as codeigniter or cakephp over wordpress? Wordpress has so many plugins, and a universally known UI for customers, it just saves a ton of time. However, a lot of the 'big guys' like SEOmoz and Distilled(?) use Cakephp and other mvc frameworks so it has me wondering what the benefits are...... anyone?

          Web Design | Aug 15, 2017, 7:23 PM | DonnieCooper
          2

        Get started with Moz Pro!

        Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

        Start my free trial
        Products
        • Moz Pro
        • Moz Local
        • Moz API
        • Moz Data
        • STAT
        • Product Updates
        Moz Solutions
        • SMB Solutions
        • Agency Solutions
        • Enterprise Solutions
        Free SEO Tools
        • Domain Authority Checker
        • Link Explorer
        • Keyword Explorer
        • Competitive Research
        • Brand Authority Checker
        • Local Citation Checker
        • MozBar Extension
        • MozCast
        Resources
        • Blog
        • SEO Learning Center
        • Help Hub
        • Beginner's Guide to SEO
        • How-to Guides
        • Moz Academy
        • API Docs
        About Moz
        • About
        • Team
        • Careers
        • Contact
        Why Moz
        • Case Studies
        • Testimonials
        Get Involved
        • Become an Affiliate
        • MozCon
        • Webinars
        • Practical Marketer Series
        • MozPod
        Connect with us

        Contact the Help team

        Join our newsletter
        Moz logo
        © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
        • Accessibility
        • Terms of Use
        • Privacy

        Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.