Forum Moderators: open
Apologies for the long preamble but I really need some help on this one. I have searched the archives and RTFFAQ but I'm still a bit confused and also concerned that Florida may have changed what is best advice in this situation.
I've got myself in a bit of a mess. A couple of weeks ago I decided I had nothing to lose and I would try some of the suggestions that folks who had looked at my site were making. Unfortunately I've done these in an unplanned, tinkering kind of way. I know I should have known better. The Google cache of my site is also in a bit of a mess.
Now I'm at a watershed, I have to decide what to do next.
Should I leave it alone for a while having ensured that there are no empty links for Google to find or should I re-engineer my site structure in a planned way in order to feed the new Google algo what I have decided gives me my best chance of sucess (I could be wrong of course).
Whichever way I turn I'm left with folders and files in Googles cache that are no longer there or have been re-named. I could just wait and maybe in 3 months time what Google has in its index will match what is on my site but I would rather have a plan to help this process through.
Here's what I've currently done. I did a search for inurl:domain.co.uk and Identified all of the files Google thinks I have. For any that have been moved or renamed I have a plain little html file with a link to the current file on it ,nothing else, no meta refresh, nothing. I have a custom 301 and 404 page which has a link to and refreshes to the root default file just in case.
again sorry about the long preamble but here is the question, I know it has been covered before but in light of the recent changes I would like to ask for what is the latest thinking on the best solution.
From a Google point of view is it best to change my htaccess file to redirect permanent, or have a rewrite rule for each URL that has changed to the correct one again in the htaccess file, continue doing what I'm currently doing with a link and meta refresh for each file in the Google index or should I just leave dead ends for Google to find and let it clear them out of the index in time.
Most backlinks point to the domain root or to perhaps two specific pages within the site which I will of course protect whatever else I do.
Allow at least 4 weeks for the change to be noticed and actioned.
