New Shopping Cart...Will I lose Position?

[Miop]

Not certain if this is the right forum but here goes....if wrong, perhaps mod could move it to the correct one!
My current shop is html home made job with pages named
http*//www.companyname.co.uk/kw1kw2.html
My index page and product index page and links page have a PR of 5, some subindex pages 4 and product pages 3.

My new shopping cart which will go live in the New Year is php - I have set it in 'safe mode' and it does this rewrite thing but the pages are named for example
http*//www.companyname.co.uk/section.php/98/0

What is the best and safest way of launching this site, or must I simply rely on everyone finding my index page until the other pages are indexed and ranked?

Can anyone forecast what is likely to happe?! Thank you.

[edited by: pageoneresults at 4:37 pm (utc) on Dec. 27, 2003]
[edit reason] Delinked Examples [/edit]

[rogerd]

Hello, miop. Changing page naming schemes is always worrisome. Even when you expect long-term benefits, short term trauma can occur.

Here are a few thoughts:
1) If your old pages were static, put 301 redirects on them to the appropriate new pages. This will allow for the most seamless transition and will also maximize the value of any external links to the old pages.

2) Create good links to some of your new pages from the site home page and other key pages that haven't changed locations.

3) Get some external links to the new pages.

4) Submit key examples (e.g., category pages) from the new scheme to engines that process submittals.

These will all hasten spidering and indexing of the new pages.

[Robino]

rogerd is correct. I would also create links to your main product category pages from your home page and/or static pages on your site.

Make sure that your page titles and descriptions are indicative of the specific products.

If your old pages rank well, leave them up and link them to the new product pages.

Good luck and congrats!

[dirkz]

I personally would go for just removing all old files, resulting in 404s delivered to crawlers, and link your shop from your homepage. Sometimes, 301s can take a couple of weeks to be sorted out.