Thread: SEO implications of a website refresh

Hi all,

I are currently completing a refresh of my website. Basically what I am doing is:

• Renaming some primary / secondary navigation page
• Creating new primary / secondary navigation pages
• Moving pages and large sections to other parts of the website

My question is how do I minimise the impact this will have on my PR and general SEO?

At the moment I have decided to stagger the moving of pages / sections and create a new XML sitemap each time to help Google etc reindex the pages. For moved pages we will set up 301s. We also have a lot of good inlinks and for some of these we will contact the websites directly requesting a change on their site.

Am I missing anything?

I would really appreciate your help.

Kind regards,

Colin.

Using mod_rewrite to 301 the old to the new is probably the best thing to do

Google can remember the pages for months on end. I would propose several strategies

1. Create a custom 404 error page. Make the page look like a new page but with error information and your standard navigation
2. Check your serp's - files with very important positions - dont remove them, you could lose your serp - keep a file here with the exact same URL and the same content.
3. Build better pages to replace it and promote them
4. Add a new sitemap.xml, add in the new files and the highest ranks pages (from your SERP check)
5. Add sitemap to Google WebMasters
6. Watch your SERPS until the new pages replace them
7. remove the old pages - the custom 404 error page should take care of any others

You can also program your 404 page to detect where people have come from (E.g. search, other site). If you have a link on another site to a page you've removed, you can 301 it or have your 404 give the user a number of suggested pages. If the user came from a search to an old page, then based on the search you could direct them to the new or other appropriate page

Once your SERP's have been replaced with the new ones, remove the old files and update your sitemap.

Originally Posted by link8r

Google can remember the pages for months on end. I would propose several strategies

1. Create a custom 404 error page. Make the page look like a new page but with error information and your standard navigation
2. Check your serp's - files with very important positions - dont remove them, you could lose your serp - keep a file here with the exact same URL and the same content.
3. Build better pages to replace it and promote them
4. Add a new sitemap.xml, add in the new files and the highest ranks pages (from your SERP check)
5. Add sitemap to Google WebMasters
6. Watch your SERPS until the new pages replace them
7. remove the old pages - the custom 404 error page should take care of any others

You can also program your 404 page to detect where people have come from (E.g. search, other site). If you have a link on another site to a page you've removed, you can 301 it or have your 404 give the user a number of suggested pages. If the user came from a search to an old page, then based on the search you could direct them to the new or other appropriate page

Once your SERP's have been replaced with the new ones, remove the old files and update your sitemap.

If you 301 the old to the new none of that is necessary

Using a custom 404 with 301s can't work - it'll give a HTTP 404 and then a 301? That sounds totally illogical

Or are you talking about trapping the 404? If you map all the old pages to the new ones that won't be necessary

Yup, all the above makes sense. Biggest thing is the 301 redirects, which could be a pain depending on the size of your site, but if you can set up some simple redirect rules you'll be laughing.

Also, if some pages are listed in directories or you've got links in, do your best to get them to amend the links at then end too - all that could also be a pain.

BK- if you have A="mydomain.com/myhotels/dublin_hotels.php" and this is number 2 in Google for "dublin hotels" and then you produce a new site B="mydomain.com/hotels/dublin.aspx" with the right content - you cannot guarantee or expect that Google will index B in the same spot. Firstly A may have more backlinks directly to this page. A new page won't automatically show, even with a 301 and I am currently going through this exact process.

I can see where Google is dropping the PHP file and not picking up the ASPX file, even though it's indexed it.

Originally Posted by link8r

BK- if you have A="mydomain.com/myhotels/dublin_hotels.php" and this is number 2 in Google for "dublin hotels" and then you produce a new site B="mydomain.com/hotels/dublin.aspx" with the right content - you cannot guarantee or expect that Google will index B in the same spot. Firstly A may have more backlinks directly to this page. A new page won't automatically show, even with a 301 and I am currently going through this exact process.

I can see where Google is dropping the PHP file and not picking up the ASPX file, even though it's indexed it.

Sorry, but that is not true

We've been through this process with our main website at least 4 times and we have been able to get the search engines to update the indices with the new pages without any issue.

If you're having issues you're obviously doing something wrong, as it has worked for us each and every time we've done it

Blacknight, link8r and hughdurkin thanks very much for your help, much appreciated.


KR,

Colin.