New site structure

how to avoid duplicate content penalty

[cwebb]

I want to restructure my website, so it resembles the themed pyramide more.

But I have incoming links to subpages which shouldn't end up on the 404page=sitemap.

Should I keep the old directory structure as well to keep visitors happy or would I get a duplicate content penalty?

[Brian]

Put robots noindex tags on your old pages and they will just fade away from Google and Fast on the subsequent deep crawl. You'll get a problem for a while (months) with AltaVista.

[Marcia]

I'd use a 301 redirect from the old to the new pages. It'll take a while for some other search engines to catch up, but Google is really good with them, and the new page gets credit for the link (and the PR).

I've done that when I moved a site section to a new domain, and I've just done it with changing a directory name. Google gets it right away; others still have the old, but when they catch up eventually it'll change. There's no problem at all, it works just fine.

Use 301 - Permanent redirect, NOT 302 which is temporary, and can be a problem. That's exactly what you're doing is permanently moving those pages, so why lose benefit.

[EasyCall]

Could you please explain exactly how to do a permanent 302 redirect.

Thanks.

[ciml]

EasyCall, Marcia suggests a 301 (permenant) HTTP redirect. A 302 HTTP redirect is for temporary changes.

The site search [searchengineworld.com] should offer plenty of help if you search for 301 redirect. Most advice is for the Apache Web server. Also, your server documentation should be able to help.