What will happen ....

If i change the linking sctructure/navigation?

[ideavirus]

Hiii,

I want to rework on my first site i designed. Possibly make it more tidier!

That iste is already in google, now if i change the linking structure with the change in Link names also, will that ffect in any way after the next google crawl.

Like will the ranking change for the new pages or will be the same?
Does google treat them as totally new pages if I change the link names ( like say if i changes the page name from abc.html to xyz.html, but the content will be the same or may be i could add to the page's content?

What do you suggest, retain the current link structure and the naming system also or is itokay to make changes?

Thanks for your input!

Cheers
:)

[caine]

From what i gather, the effect could be profound, due to the fact that you are restructuing the site, as long as it is to help theming principles then you should'nt experience downs, but ups, basically the pages support each other, and by changing the support structure you're altering the assigned variable values that G's algo has assigned to each of the pages, within the directories within the site against all other site.

Remember google updates regularly, however Alta, not so regular, and they could still have links to the old page, up in the SERPs, so don't kill the pages, just make them orphans until the SE's see the new structure.

[MeditationMan]

You seem to be talking about changing the directory structure and file names rather than changing the link structure (i.e navigation) and link names (anchor text).

Changing the link structure might well change how pagerank is distributed in your site, and might well be a good thing to do. I've done it a lot to improve navigation in my site.

If you change the file names, then Google will definitely treat them as new pages (well, they are new pages, aren't they?). You'll also lose any benefit of incoming links to existing pages, and you'll irritate people who follow links to non-existent pages (unless you keep the old pages and put in redirects).

I'd suggest that unless there is some compelling need for you to change your files names, keep them the same and just change the organization of your links.

[ideavirus]

Thanks for the interesting feedback! It was very helpful for me! :)

altering the assigned variable values that G's algo has assigned to each of the pages

was there any discussion on this assigned variable thingy on WebmasterWorld, if so pls give me some pointers, I'd like to read about it.

Yeah, I also wanted to change the link structure and the anchor text, now, i may have to reconsider..Just that i wanted to use more suggestive link names!Okay, I'll retain those old pages as orphans untill the SE's get used to my new linking structure.

If you change the file names, then Google will definitely treat them as new pages (well, they are new pages, aren't they?)

I am a bit confused with this! based that the above quote, i feel, google treats a page a new one, if i change the file name even if the content is the same right?

Thanks for your valuable time
Cheers
:)

[martinibuster]

I did this myself to one of my directories to see what happened. What happened is that multiple bots kept calling at the old directory. Furthermore, even though the page was scoring high in the search engines, the page itself did not exist!

So what I did was to put an error page up for potential customers to follow, and bots to follow via a link, to my new page. Because this page was not linked from any other page, it naturally disappeared from the all the search engines.

I'm not seeing any benefit. My serps are off, but I'm not sure if it's because of the change.

[ideavirus]

Hello,

Other than changing certain aspects of my site mentioned above, i will also be changing the host, since i wanted more features from my host, hence the change in host!

How would you suggest me to do it!?

1. Any particular time of the montht o make changes?
2. Leave the old pages at my old host for a few days, atleast untill the immediate google crawl!?
3. Make as minimal changes in the link anchors and the page names?

Thanks for your time
:)