How much pain can I expect if I change the URL structure of the site again?
-
About 3 months ago I implemented a massive URL structure change by 'upgrading' some of the features of our CMS
Prior to this URL's for catergorys and products looked something like this
http://www.thefurnituremarket.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=OX09
I made a few changes but din't implement it fully as I felt it would be better to do it instages as the site was getting indexed more thouroughly.
HOWEVER...
We have just hit the first page for some key SERP's and I am wary to rock the boat again by changing the URL structures again and all the sitemaps.
How much pain do you think we could feel if i went ahead and optimised the URL's fully?
and
What would you do?
-
Hi Robert,
I'm following up on older, unanswered questions. Can you tell us what you ended up doing with the site, and how much pain you went through, and any lessons learned? I'm interested to here what decision you made here.
Thanks!
-
As long as you 301 the pages you should be fine, however, if you are ranking why change it?
-
If you are serioulsy looking at changing CMS - then wait till you are closer to implementation - and then run it all in one go...
-
I am in 301 hell... :-S
With FP extensions you need to access the .htaccess file and I can't find a hosting provider who will touch it for me..
Hence the reason for my question.. I have found a way to add rel=canonical to the dynamic pages on the site but this will change how the site is indexed... also there is a way to amend the URL's to drop catergory.asp / product.asp/ productdetail.asp out of the URL and replace it with the actual product names..
Although other people I've asked seem to think google have overcome issues like this and that they will put less importance on URL's in the future.. the perfectionist in me wants to change everything so its all perfect..
What do you think?
-
Ah I didn't know you were changing CMS. If that's the case then things change a little. You have the option to 301 all your URL's that haven't been rewritten so that's probably your best bet as your duplicating your effort otherwise. I'd like to hear anyone else's view though
DD
-
Thanks for the reply Damien,
Thing is we are looking seriously @ magento and other CMS. We are on old technology here.. I make all the sitemaps and feeds myself (with excel)..
Still think its worth the hit or would you leave it until we got a news CMS?
-
I would take the hit - as I don't believe it will be massive and in the long-run you'd be better off as you'll soon come back to your original ranking position.
You're going to want to change them at some point in time so the sooner it gets done the better in my opinion.
DD
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
-
Why to add a product id in the url
Hello ! shop.com/en/2628-buy-key-origin-the-sims-4-seasons/ Why will people use a product id in the link? Is there any advantage like better ranking or else?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | kh-priyam0 -
One page sites
HI Guys, I need help with a one page site What is the best method to getting the lower pages indexed? Linking back to the site(Deeplinking) is looking impossible. Will this hurt my SEO? Are there any other tips on one page websites that you can recommend?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Johnny_AppleSeed0 -
Can I Use Meta NoIndex to Block Unwanted Links?
I have a forum thread on my site that is completely user generated, not spammy at all, but it is attracting about 45 backlinks from really spammy sites. Usually when this happens, the thread is created by a spammer and I just 404 it. But in this instance, the thread is completely legit, and I wouldn't want to 404 it because users could find it useful. If I add a meta noindex, nofollow tag to the header, will the spammy pagerank still be passed? How best can I protect myself from these low quality backlinks? I don't want to get slapped by Penguin! **Note: I cannot find contact information from the spam sites and it's in a foreign language.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | TMI.com0 -
Can I 301 redirect old URLs to staging URLs (ex. staging.newdomain.com) for testing?
I will temporarily remove a few pages from my old website and redirect them to a new domain but in staging domain. Once the redirection is successful, I will remove the redirection rules in my .htaccess and get the removed pages back to live. Thanks in advance!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | esiow20130 -
Site architecture change - +30,000 404's in GWT
So recently we decided to change the URL structure of our online e-commerce catalogue - to make it easier to maintain in the future. But since the change, we have (partially expected) +30K 404's in GWT - when we did the change, I was doing 301 redirects from our Apache server logs but it's just escalated. Should I be concerned of "plugging" these 404's, by either removing them via URL removal tool or carry on doing 301 redirections? It's quite labour intensive - no incoming links to most of these URL's, so is there any point? Thanks, Ben
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | bjs20100 -
How can do I report a multiple set of duplicated websites design to manipulate SERPs?
Ok, so within one of my client's sectors it has become clear that someone is trying to manipulate the SERPs by registering tons of domains that are all keyword targeted. All of the websites are simply duplications of one another and are merely setup to dominate the SERP listings - which, at the moment, it is beginning to do. None of the sites have any real authority (in some cases 1 PA and DA) and yet they're ranking above much more established websites. The only back links they have are from dodgy-looking forum ones. It's all a bit crazy and it shouldn't be happening. Anyway, all of the domains have been registered by the same person and within a two-month time period of each other. What do you guys think is the best step to take to report these particular websites to Google?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Webrevolve0 -
Site being targeted by hardcore porn links
We noticed recently a huge amount of referral traffic coming to a client's site from various hard cord porn sites. One of the sites has become the 4th largest referrer and there are maybe 20 other sites sending traffic. I did a Whois look up on some of the sites and they're all registered to various people & companies, most of them are pretty shady looking. I don't know if the sites have been hacked or are deliberately sending traffic to my client's site, but it's obviously a concern. The client's site was compromised a few months ago and had a bunch of spam links inserted into the homepage code. Has anyone else seen this before? Any ideas why someone would do this, what the risks are and how we fix it? All help & suggestions greatly appreciated, many thanks in advance. MB.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | MattBarker0