What is the risk of changing underscores to hyphens in URLs that are ranking
-
Client wants to change URL structure from underscores to hyphens - reason for doing this is a cosmetic move. What is the risk of changing underscores to hyphens for URLs that that have been around since 2012 and have a lot of keywords ranking in the top 5 in the SERPS?
When the created the site - they structured the URL using dashes and underscores. Here is an example of what an URL looks like:
/programs-degrees**/clinical-psychology/clinical_phd_kansas****-city****/**
*This page ranks for many high volume keywords in the top 5 of the SERPS.
I have started to compile a list on why the URL should not be changed...
- Building trust and authority from scratch
- 301 redirects do not pass 100% of the link juice
- 301 redirecting from underscored to hyphenated versions of the same content is an unnecessary risk to some of that link equity.
- Good chance rankings/traffic will drop because of the URL change
-
You pretty much nailed it. If the only reason is cosmetic (which I doubt has any influence on anything), there is absolutely no reason to risk losing top 5 rankings. Good luck!
Side note.. Google's official stance is that 301s pass 100% authority but not worth testing. You are guaranteed to see a dip in rankings/organic traffic after you set up the 301s.
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
-
Homepage Ranking Issue
Hi Folks, My site https://homeontheswan.com/ has been live for a few months now. Certain pages are ranking, even some number 1 postions for prodcuct pages with certain search terms. But our homepage doesn't seem to rank in Google when searching by brand name "Home on the Swan". The page is well optimized according to Moz. Any tips / insight into why this is happening would be much appreciated. Jamie
Technical SEO | | homeontheswan10 -
Unknown Subdomains Ranking
In spot checking some pages that I recently launched, I found subdomains ranking in place of the domain. The strange thing is, we never set up these sub-domains and they don't exist on our server. The pages, though they're indexed with the proper title and meta-description, time out when clicked. We're operating on Drupal 7, pages launched at the beginning of the month. The other pages within the series of content are ranking properly. Any thoughts or tips to resolve this?
Technical SEO | | JordanNCU1 -
Having Problems to Index all URLs on Sitemap
Hi all again ! Thanks in advance ! My client's site is having problems to index all its pages. I even bought the full extension of XML Sitemaps and the number of urls increased, but we still have problems to index all of them. What are the reasons? The robots.txt is open for all robots, we only prohibit users and spiders to enter our Intranet. I've read that duplicate content and 404's can be the reason. Anything else?
Technical SEO | | Tintanus0 -
URL Folders and Naming Convention Changes?
1. We’re looking for some clarification in regards to our URL structure. Currently, at our product level we have http://www.ties.com/v/a/elite-solid-black-black-tie however the parent URL is http://www.ties.com/black-ties. a. So here are the question. How much is this hurting because semantically the naming convention of this URL and weird and doesn’t follow logical patterns. In other words. Should the product page for this be http://ties.com/black-ties/elite-solid-black-tie. How bad is this hurting us? b. If we were to change the ULR structure, should we do it in phases or all at once? We don’t want to get penalized. We have well over 3,000 product pages.
Technical SEO | | Ties.com0 -
ECommerce Platform Change
I'm just entering the process of switching web developer companies, and I was wondering what process would be best for redirecting our old product (new and used cars) pages. Our current design leaves much to be desired seo wise (http://www.resslermotors.com/index.asp?cmd=detail&vin=1FTSX30F3XEC01446&stocknumber=123911&sg=ocor5h42d2yhkla&Make=Ford&parCertifiedFlag=&Model=&parVehTypeID=&p=6&page=1), and redirecting all of them seems like it would be pretty complicated. In addition to that, we currently have 35,000 pages. Is there a practical way to do redirects with this many pages?
Technical SEO | | ResslerMotors0 -
Php to html - change in extension
Hello, What is the code to redirect all the pages of a site from .php to .html extension? Thanks
Technical SEO | | seoug_20051 -
We have Lost Ranking After Panda update
Hi, on the last Updates of google Panda in Europe, we hAve Lost Ranking. What to do now? where to Start! Which Things First and which Second..? Need help, Tell me how to fix issuess...
Technical SEO | | leadsprofi0 -
Ranking above PLACE PAGES
What does it take for results to show up above Place Page results. It seems like Google Local gets a lot of emphasis . Any thoughts?
Technical SEO | | musillawfirm0