Every one knows that if you change the URL’s of your site during a make-over or move you have to redirect the old URLs for a while or you will loose all your SEO/ranking. (You didn’t know that!!!??)
Okay then, let’s start again…
If you ever move your site or rename/change your URL’s after your site has been indexed by the search engines you will need to redirect your old URLs to the new ones until the bots come back and index your new URLs.
If you don’t do this you will loose all your current ranking and SEO stats. You will be starting from scratch! (GASP!)
There are many ways to redirect your URLs, but only one way can ensure that you maintain your ranking in the search engines and it is surprisingly simple!
Here are the methods:
You can redirect your site with a javascript in the <head> tags of your page you want to redirect. This is not a good way to maintain your SEO, but it is a good way to have someone land on your page and then be taken to a new/other page in a certain amount of time. Here is an example:
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
function delayer(){
window.location = "../yournewURL.html"
}
//-->
</script>
</head>
<body onLoad="setTimeout('delayer()', 5000)">
You can see that the script (which can be used alone) for the redirect is placed within the “head” tags, and the delayer function is placed within the “body” tags. (If you choose to use that part. If not just use the top portion.)
But, again, that is not the best way to redirect to a new page that you want to maintain your SEO for, and is a permanent redirect.
Here is another not so great way to redirect a page.
<meta HTTP-EQUIV=”REFRESH” content=”0; url=http://www.yourdomain.com/index.html”>
This is better than the javascript, unless you want a time delay, but still will not do the job of maintaining your SEO during a move or page name change.
Here is how you permanently redirect a page on your site so that it will maintain all the SEO of the older page.
You need to create a .htaccess file and place it in the same directory (or root of the site if most of the pages are being redirected/changed) as your old page and your new page.
This might sound very technical, but it is extremely simple! I have used this technique in the past and it works very well.
Here are the steps to creating your .htaccess file:
1. Determine which pages need to be redirected and what their new URL will be.
2. Copy and paste this code into a notepad or other text editor (not word, or any word processing program).
Order deny,allow
Redirect permanent /http://www.youroldurl.com/ http://www.yournewurl.com/
3. Save the file to your computer with the name .htaccess
4. Upload to the root of your site, or the folder where the new html page/file is located on your site.
5. Test this by going to google and typing in site:yoursitehere.com and then it will pull up all of the pages on your site that google has indexed recently and is storing information on. Click on the page there that you redirected and see that it does in fact redirect!
All of the SEO from the old page is automatically transferred to the new URL!
Have fun!
-Sara
I am curious to find out what blog platform you happen to be using?
I’m having some minor security issues with my latest website and I would like to find something more secure.
Do you have any suggestions?
This site and many others I run all operate on WordPress. 🙂