6 replies to this topic

[stevenba]

Great forum btw

If i do some SEO work on an existing site, there are occasions where existing html page filenames need renaming (eg Untitled2.htm to services.htm)

If the page is already listed in the search engines, i would normally leave it where it is and add the renamed page alongside it with links now pointing to new page, so as to not get http 404 errors where visitors click on the old existing link from the SEs.

That can result in two pages having identical content, which in effect is spamming, although done in good faith.

Would the best thing to do:

• wait until new renamed page gets listed and use noindex redirective in robots.txt or meta or
• leave it where it is in its orphaned state and hope that it diappears without getting the site penalised

[Mel]

Neither of the above. Leave the page where it is and point users and spiders to the new page with a 301 (moved) redirect.

[stevenba]

Ta for the reply.

So i use .htaccess for my 301 direct which will look like:

redirect 301 /Untitled2.htm http://www.mydomain.com/services.htm

(correct me if i'm wrong)

The SEs will drop the old page and index new one within 6-8 weeks, and meantime users will be redirected.

I understand Google recognises this, but for PFI wi Inktomi, if Untitled2.htm was listed, what would happen ?

---- Slightly different question -----
Also, if i have incoming links to site using different URLs and URL forwarding, if i use this to point redirect all URLs at one, will this be OK, and will it aggregate link popularity ? (at present with multiple URLs, it is diluted)

This is of importance where i have .com tlds which are being biased against by UK SEs so i would like to redirect my .com TLD listings to a co.uk TLD.

Thanx in advance,

[Jill]

I wouldn't rename the pages at all. They should be perfectly fine as is and it's not worth having them possibly drop for a time, or setting up redirects.

Jill

[Newtron]

I posted a similar question yesterday "Is this an SE no-no?" On the advice of Mel and Scottiecl, I completed my renaming of 26 pages and installed a 301 for each page. When I ran my stats this morning, Google had been in my site and indexed all my 'new' pages.

This doesn't mean that I have accomplished anything in the way of improving my rankings, but Google did pick up the new pages.

Jill, are you saying that you see no value in renaming pages? I am assuming that Steven sees value in the term 'services.'

BTW, thank you for providing this great forum....

[Jill]

Jill, are you saying that you see no value in renaming pages?

Yes. Definitely not worth the trouble. Too many things that actually matter to your ranking to do to care about stuff like that, and all the headaches, hassles, possible dupes, that come with it.

Forget about keyword-rich file names and domain names. They are NOT the key to high rankings. Not by a long-shot.

Jill

[stevenba]

Ok,

So i won't continue down the route of embedding keywords into filenames and the associated hassle of renaming files just for page rank advantages.

that will save me some work ...

Also, if i have incoming links to site using different URLs and URL forwarding, if i use this to point redirect all URLs at one, will this be OK, and will it aggregate link popularity ? (at present with multiple URLs, it is diluted)

I may not have explained the situation very clearly ....

I have .com and .co.uk tlds pointing to the same site. I have external incoming links using both of these domains (i inherited this). In terms of link popularity, i assume i would be better off having all incoming links point to just the one domain (co.uk in this case for uk search results) in order to 'aggregate the link popularity'. And to complement this, i would use a 301 redirect to redirect requests for .com to .co.uk domain, so in time the .com domain would get dropped in the SEs and the co.uk would get a better listing.

Does this make sense ?