Navigation structure change in a well ranked site

Will the Google spider consider that as a normal content update?

[nessuno2001]

Hi, I have a Google well ranked website. It has only static html pages. For a massive redesign operation, the navigation structure is now completely different: the site has new directories, new files, different file names, and so on. Only the "index.html" page has still got the same name and position.

As for the content, this operation is an usual update: I added new pages and rewrote bits of the texts in the old ones.

My question is: will the Google-bot consider my site update as a normal content update? Will the navigation structure change affect the ranking in a negative way?

I decided to mantain old pages in the main directory in order to avoid "HTTP 404" while Google updates its database, even if deleted all the inbound links to these pages, so the spider won't find them anymore. Is it a good idea?

Thank you for your answers.

[jonrichd]

> I decided to mantain old pages in the main directory in order to avoid "HTTP 404" while Google updates its database, even if deleted all the inbound links to these pages, so the spider won't find them anymore. Is it a good idea?

Keep in mind that since your old pages are now being used to give search results, if you deleted these old pages, then anyone refered to your site by a SE would get 404 errors if they clicked through today. As such, it's probably not a good idea to delete them.

One approach could be to use robots.txt to prohibit the spiders from indexing the 'old' directory contents in the future. This would hasten their demise in the search engines.

A better approach would be to use a 301 redirect to automatically show visitors and robots the new page rather then the old one. Use the search button at the top of the page for 301 redirect for more information.

[andreasfriedrich]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com] nessuno2001.

Be sure to read Marcia`s WebmasterWorld Welcome and Guide to the Basics [webmasterworld.com] post.

The RedirectPermanent [httpd.apache.org] approach as mentioned by jonrichd is the way to go.

BTW I hope you choose your new site structure in a way that will make changing it around in the future unnecessary.

Andreas

[krbulldog]

"Hi, I have a Google well ranked website."

Why change a winning team?

[egomaniac]

> My question is: will the Google-bot consider my site update as a normal content update? Will the navigation structure change affect the ranking in a negative way?

Hi nessuno2001, the answer is likely yes it will change your rankings. Could be positive or negative though. Even though your content hasn't changed, when you change how pages are interlinked within your site, you are changing how PageRank flows within your site. Some of your pages could have more and some less PR than which would likely affect their rankings.

Also, get those old pages out of there and setup 301 redirects fast. It sounds like you have duplicate content on your site now, and that is a sure way to sink your rankings with Google.