Replacing a site map
-
We are in the process of changing our folder/url structure. Currently we have about 5 sitemaps submitted to Google.
How is it best to deal with these site maps in terms of either (a) replacing the old URLs with the new ones in the site map and (b) what affect should we have if we removed the site map submission from the Google Webmaster Tools console.
Basically we have in the region of 20,000 urls to redirect to the new format, and to update in the site map.
-
Another thought might be to place a noindex on the new pages to start with and as we migrate and 301 redirect the old to the new remove the noindex on the new pages ?
That can work but it's not an approach i would use. It seems like a lot of extra work, you run the risk of forgetting to remove the noindex tag on some pages, and also you may wind up not having pages properly indexed for a month.
If you publish a page today, Google may crawl the new page and see the noindex tag. You can then remove the noindex tag but Google may not recrawl the page for some time leaving your site without an indexed page.
As part of the process of publishing the page, I would 301 the old URL to the new URL immediately.
-
Another thought might be to place a noindex on the new pages to start with and as we migrate and 301 redirect the old to the new remove the noindex on the new pages ?
Thoughts ??
-
since the site has over 10,000 pages we need to make sure all redirects etc are set-up before we go live with the new URLs ?
Whether your site has 10 pages or a million pages you should ensure all internal links work without the need for redirection. Any old external links should be redirected to the correct page on your site if one exists. Otherwise you can allow the URL to 404 if there is not a current equivalent page.
Set up your site's 404 page so users are offered a basic "page not found" message along with your site's navigation and a search function. You should set up a log to track which URLs are generating 404 errors.
Prior to launching the site run a crawl diagnostic to help ensure nothing has been missed.
-
Perfect thanks. Just one final question, since the site has over 10,000 pages we need to make sure all redirects etc are set-up before we go live with the new URLs ?
What is the best way to go forward with regards launching the site ?
Should we launch the new pages and then go through the URLs redirecting them ?
Thoughts please ??
-
We are changing our site structure for two main reasons
-
Ease of functionality, and having the ability to target friendly URLs suitable for SEO
-
Plus we've a new CMS, that allows this custom written URLs
The current structure has too many folders that are too deep, and is becoming too un-manageable. The new CMS gives us totally control from one control panel.
I understand that we will loose some PR, but believe it will be for the better of the site and user experience.
-
-
We are changing our site structure for two main reasons
-
Ease of functionality, and having the ability to target friendly URLs suitable for SEO
-
Plus we've a new CMS, that allows this custom written URLs
The current structure has too many folders that are too deep, and is becoming too un-manageable. The new CMS gives us totally control from one control panel.
I understand that we will loose some PR, but below it will be for the better of the site and user experience.
-
-
Big question: are you changing folder/url structure for aesthetics or functionality? Often times it's not worth making such a large change in hopes of getting some SEO-friendly URL's, as the weight on SEO-friendly URL's isn't what it once was. And the headache involved, as well as the inevitable loss in traffic, is quite often not worth it at all.
With that said, refresh your entire sitemap with the new URL's once they are made. Remove all old urls.
IMPORTANT: setup 301 redirects, either using .htaccess or PHP (or whatever language your site uses), to redirect all old urls to the respective new urls. You will lose a fair chunk of PR during this change, but if you feel your site will benefit greatly from a structure change, then you will be willing to take the hit.
Don't leave any redirect un-turned. Then, you'll just have to wait it out while Google re-indexes your entire site trying to figure out your new url structure. Could take a week, could take months. All depends on what Google has valued your site as. For example, if CNN changed their entire URL structure, they probably would miss a beat. Smaller websites tend to take much larger hits in the SERP's.
So, just be sure it's a necessary action, trust me. And don't ever remove those 301's from your .htaccess as you never know what Google still has in their index for your site.
-
A sitemap should be a link representation of your site. It should contain a link to every page you wish to be included in Google's index.
How is it best to deal with these site maps in terms of either (a) replacing the old URLs with the new ones in the site map
Just make the switch. If a page no longer exists on your site, remove the link. If you create a new page on your site, add the link.
what affect should we have if we removed the site map submission from the Google Webmaster Tools console
For the most part, none. During the next crawl Google would look for your sitemap at your root address: www.mydomain.com/sitemap.xml. Google will also check your robots.txt file for a path to your sitemap file. If a sitemap is not located, it will crawl your site normally.
The primary purpose of a sitemap is to allow Google to become aware about new pages on your site it otherwise might not find. If your site offers solid navigation, a site map is not necessary at all.
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
-
Linking to my Site so I should Link Back?
I remember hearing a few years ago that it was a good practice to link back to a site that was linking to you. My company's site was referenced and linked to in a news article. The news company has an above average domain authority, which is pretty good for my company's backlink profile. Is it still or was ever a "best practice" to link back to this website/domain? I feel like linking back was a best practice, but when I try to search this, all I get back is backlinking 101 and backlinking articles. Nothing really answering my question straight forward. Thanks for any help.
Technical SEO | | aua0 -
On-site adjustment opinions
Hi folks, I've got a fairly interesting scenario. I'm trying to rank this page (http://www.staysa.co.za/sa/1-2-0-0-1/East-London/accommodation) better for the term, "accommodation east london". The client isn't keen on making many changes and it was built horribly with ASP, half CMS, half not. I have made the following changes today: I introduced two paragraphs of text below the H1 tag. I changed "East London Bed and Breakfast", "East London Conference Venues", "East London Cottage / Chalet" to just "Bed and Breakfast", "Conference Venues", "Cottage / Chalet" as the continual key phrase duplication in my experience is a bad move. I've made a change to the title tag (this is a huge mission as it's not CMS controlled, so I had to teach myself some basic ASP to do so). Meta data.. nightmare to change unfortunately, at least not without rewriting part of the CMS. I'm wondering, are there any other on-site factors that I'm missing? I'm not a fan of site-wide links, so I don't want to put an exact match anchor text link from the sidebar/footer to the page, not unless someone can motivate why I should. Keen to hear everyone's opinions 🙂
Technical SEO | | ChristopherM0 -
Asking to remove links from other sites
How hard is it to get people to take off links that point to your site that are on theirs? I have about 4 sites that I would like my link OFF of their blogroll because I think I was hit by the penguin update because of that. Do you know if there is anything you can do if they DON'T take it off?
Technical SEO | | SeaC0 -
Replacing H1's with images
We host a few Japanese sites and Japanese fonts tend to look a bit scruffy the larger they are. I was wondering if image replacement for H1 is risky or not? eg in short... spiders see: Some header text optimized for seo then in the css h1 {
Technical SEO | | -Al-
text-indent: -9999px;
} h1.header_1{ background:url(/images/bg_h1.jpg) no-repeat 0 0; } We are considering this technique, I thought I should get some advise before potentially jeopardising anything, especially as we are dealing with one of the most important on page elements. In my opinion any attempt to hide text could be seen as keyword stuffing, is it a case that in moderation it is acceptable? Cheers0 -
What keywords should i be using to promote my site
Hi i am looking to promote my home page which is a lifestyle magazine www.in2town.co.uk and i am not sure what keywords i should be using to promote it. I am doing ok for the keyword lifestyle magazine but i am struggling on what other keywords i should be using to get people to the home page of the magazine. The magazine is nearly finished and we still have a couple of finishing touches to do but the basics of the magazine is as follows holiday and travel news, soap gossip, celebrity gossip, product reviews, lingerie brands, gastric band hypnotherapy, health, fashion and beauty and holiday reviews. I want the home page to be the main page where everyone visits but i am not sure what i should be doing to accomplish this. Any ideas would be of a great help
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Redirecting one ecommerce site to another
Hi I'm planning to redirect one large ecommerce site to another. Here's how I was thinking of doing it: crawl both sites with Xenu and export urls to a CSV match urls where possible, redirecting pages from site A to relevant ones in site B all others will be redirected to site B's home page Now, I'm dealing with thousands of URLs here, so any way to make it easier would be great. Could this mean just redirecting all of Site A's pages to Site B's homepage would be worth it? Or does redirecting relevant pages where possible seem the best idea? Thanks guys!
Technical SEO | | neooptic0 -
Partial Site Move -- Tell Google Entire Site Moved?
OK this one's a little confusing, please try to follow along. We recently went through a rebranding where we brought a new domain online for one of our brands (we'll call this domain 'B' -- it's also not the site linked to in my profile, not to confuse things). This brand accounted for 90% of the pages and 90% of the e-comm on the existing domain (we'll call the existing domain 'A') . 'A' was also redesigned and it's URL structure has changed. We have 301s in place on A that redirect to B for those 90% of pages and we also have internal 301s on A for the remaining 10% of pages whose URL has changed as a result of the A redesign What I'm wondering is if I should tell Google through webmaster tools that 'A' is now 'B' through the 'Change of Address' form. If I do this, will the existing products that remain on A suffer? I suppose I could just 301 the 10% of URLs on B back to A but I'm wondering if Google would see that as a loop since I just got done telling it that A is now B. I realize there probably isn't a perfect answer here but I'm looking for the "least worst" solution. I also realize that it's not optimal that we moved 90% of the pages from A to B, but it's the situation we're in.
Technical SEO | | badgerdigital0