3 replies to this topic

[star1]

i am taking over a website that id approx 15K pages 20% in asp and the rest in html

the site needs a new design and more content adding that will be on a regular basis

Should i keep all the urls the same? (the site does generate a large amount of traffic) or should i rewrite the urls? ie should i keep the site part html and part asp. My instincts say do not loose the old urls but would be grateful for your opinions

[Randy]

Your instincts are good. Changing the page name or file path is going to have some kind of detrimental effect. How much depends upon what you do to control the negative effects and help the search engine spiders understand what's happened.

I won't make a blanket statement that you shouldn't ever change URLs. Sometimes it needs to be done for good reasons. eg Business reasons, to make maintenance easier or because of a back end software change. This sounds like this may be the situation you're faced with. What you want to stay away from is changing the URLs for some SEO reason, since those are rarely necessary or even good reasons.

The trick to controlling the negative effects is to make sure you've got a 301 Moved Permanently redirect set up for each and every url that is changing. Preferably pointing the old URL to a page that is replacing it.

If you can, it's also best to do this during the normal low season for the site. Every site has a low season that lasts a month or two, so if you've got the historical stats it's best to prep and test everything ahead of time, then flip the switch once the low season starts. By the time the site starts moving back into its normal high season the search engines should have had enough time to catch up with the changes.

[star1]

great advice randy - yes its for admin reasons that I would change things however although my options are

1. 301 every url to equivalent page replacing it
2. keep same url

would option 2 always offer me the better solution in terms of maintaining traffic and Search engine positioning? also does a page being in asp have any influence over search positioning? ( i am guessing not but would like your opinion).

Many thanks again

[Randy]

#2 would be best for search engine positioning in the near term, yes. Because you're not changing any urls so the engines won't have to catch up.

Of course it all sort of depends upon when your high season falls and when/if you can afford to have a slight downturn in search-generated business. I never like to do url changes in or leading up to a high season, but don't worry about it too much if it's low season because I know the engines will generally catch up in 4-6 weeks if I do it right.

also does a page being in asp have any influence over search positioning?

Nope, no influence at all in the extension. You can make any page any file extension you want, as long as the server will process it correctly.