Changing URLs
-
As of right now we are using yahoo small business, when creating a product you have to declare an id, when we created the site we were not aware that you will not be able to change the id but also the ID is being used as the URL. we have a couple thousand products in which we will need to update the URLs. What would the best way to be to fix this without losing much juice from our current pages. Also I was thinking that if we did them all in a couple weeks it would hurt us a lot, and the best course of action would be to do a slow roll out of the URL changes. Any help is appreciated. Thank you!
-
Hi Thomas
I would try it with a few products to see the effect in analytics and search rankings. Keep track and records (consider version control) of where your backend is right now, so if you have to revert, you can quickly. There are some things you need to consider when changing URLs, especially on a grand scale:
-
Make sure you pay attention to eCommerce optimization
-
Here is a great resource from KISSmetrics
-
Create a strong URL map
-
Here is a great URL Mapping resource from Google
-
Canonicalize your URLs
-
Use a canonical tag on these new and old URLs to reflect the new URL as what you wish to rank
-
You can learn more here
-
Update your sitemap.xml
-
Update your sitemap xml and also submit it to your WMT and Bing WMT
-
Correct all of your internal links to reflect the new structure
-
Consider using relative URLs
-
If you want, find your high quality backlinks using Moz or Majestic
-
Reach out and ask them to reflect the new URL structure
-
Consider https if you haven't already
-
https is now a ranking factor - since you are collecting information from users, this is something you should consider
If you do these redirects correctly, this shouldn't be a huge issues, as Google will pass 90-99% of link equity. Keep track of your rankings and traffic in Google Analytics and Moz. Watch carefully and be in touch with your web development/SEO lead (if you have one) throughout the entire process.
Hope this helps a bit! Good luck!
-
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
-
How Shold I Structure URLs for a Portfolio?
Hi Moz Community, My web design agency has a lot of different projects we showcase in the portfolio of our site, but I'm having trouble finding information on the best practices for how to structure the URLs for all of those portfolio pages. We have tons of projects that we've done in the same service category and even multiple projects we've done for the same company within that category. For example, right now things look like: www.rootdomain.com/portfolio/web-design/clientname which tends to get long, bulky and awkward, considering we do lots of projects in the web design category and might do a second project for the same company. How should we differentiate the projects from a URL standpoint to avoid having all of the pages compete for the same keyword? Does it even matter, given that these portfolio showcases are primarily image-based anyways?
Technical SEO | | formandfunctionagency0 -
Adding a parameter to the URL / URL Stracture
Dear Community, I would like to ask a question regarding url structure. We are struggling with shorting urls and we thought to add a "parameter" to the url. Example: domain.com/product**/a/** or domain.com**/a/**product/ Current url structure: domain.com/product/ So we go after and short url contains "/a/" and find the category we want. Is this going to harm our SEO strategies? Any idea is welcome.
Technical SEO | | geofil0 -
How to add 301 for many urls
Hi I need to redirect many urls in a website and I was wondering if instead of doing it one by one there is a way to get it the other way round.... Redirect all pages but a few. I get a feeling this is not possible, but prefer asking just in case. Thanks for any feedback
Technical SEO | | turismodevino10 -
Question about creating friendly URLs
I am working on creating new SEO friendly URLs for my company website. The products are the items with the highest search volume and each is very geo-specific
Technical SEO | | theLotter
There is not a high search volume for the geo-location associated with the product, but the searches we do get convert well. Do you think it is preferable to leave the location out of the URL or include it?0 -
My Old Domain is Not Changing in Google
I have taken over the following domain www.choice-cottages.co.uk, part of the contract was to re-direct the old site www.choicecottages.info to the new site. Unfortunately I am only a middle man in the arrangement as the website is hosted with another company. The switch was done well over 4 weeks ago, the re-direct itself is working fine. However if you google choice cottages you will see the first listing is www.choicecottages.info, then I have my new site below for a few listings. Google is definitely updating something as before the old domain had lots of site links but this has reduced to a few. Does anyone know anything on this, as in the past it only takes a couple of days to update. Many thanks Andy
Technical SEO | | iprosoftware0 -
What is your opinion on ideal url structure?
Which url structure do you think is better... website.com/CO/denver/555-your-address-way-denver-co-55678/98347578 or website.com/classifying-keyword/555_your_address_way-denver_colorado-55678-98347578 orrr website.com/classifying-keyword/555-your-address-way-denver-colorado-55678-98347578
Technical SEO | | jessefriedman0 -
Google News URL Format
Hi, We are currently redesigning our gaming website (www.totallygn.com) and one of our main goals is to get listed by Google News in future. Looking at the Google News URL requirements "The URL for each article must contain a unique number consisting of at least three digits." How does the above affect SEO structure? I was planning on using a format such as www.totallygn.com/xbox-360/360-reviews/fifa-12-review how would this compare to something like? www.totallygn.com/xbox-360/360-reviews/fifa-12-review234 Thanks in advance for your help
Technical SEO | | WalesDragon0 -
Creating new website with possible Url change (301 involved?)
Hi, I am currently getting a web designer to upgrade my website. I have built lost of links to my internal pages, should I get him to 301 redirect example.com/about.html (old) to example.com/about (new) OR Is there any need for this once the page doesn't change to example.com/about-us? Thank you in advance 🙂
Technical SEO | | Socialdude0