Site Hosting Change: Same domain, same content, different page names

website hosting change fallout

[MFTStrategies]

I have to migrate my website from one host provider to the other. The domain, the content is the same, but I HAVE to rename the page (file) names of my static .htm pages because my site will not be database driven. I will be going from indexed pages with a format name like this:

http://www.domain.com/-screen-scnGetExtHtml-_param-visit_pl1-.htm

to this:

http://www.domain.com/visit.htm

Any advice as to how to handle it best to mitigate loss of SERPs?

[robsoles]

Please search the forums harder, if you don't like the forum's inbuilt search function then you might like to know that the following is a useful search in the google search box for your problem:

site:www.webmasterworld.com migrate site serp issue

The basic answer is that you are best off to '301 Moved Permanently' all of your current 'google known' URLs to their new URLs - doing this is pretty much the difference between 'fluttering a little in the SERPs' and 'tumbling out and hoping real hard to tumble back in on the new URLs'.

site:www.webmasterworld.com best 301 method <insert server setup here>

Good luck,
robsoles.

After-thought: There are factors in play about changing hosts which can have dramatic effects on SERPs placement, I only know enough to be pretty sure of it - I'd have to ask someone if someone asked me about this, please ask someone else...

[ecmedia]

Please also be prepared to massive turbulence in traffic.

[BananaFish]

If you're on a unix server, chances are the web server is apache. You can simply put something like this in your htaccess file:

Redirect 301 /-screen-scnGetExtHtml-_param-visit_pl1-.htm [domain.com...]

The 301 will tell the search engine spiders and visiting browsers that the content is at a new page. If you set the redirects up properly migration should not be an issue. If there is some kind of naming convention from dynamic to static, you may be able to handle all the redirects in a pattern matching redirect with the RedirectMatch directive.

[jdMorgan]

Or use an internal URL rewrite, and don't change your URLs at all. URLs and filenames are two different things, and you can 'map' any requested URL to any server filename you like, either with mod_rewrite an Apache, or ISAPI rewrite on IIS.

Cool URIs don't change [w3.org].

With the exception of a forced change in your domain name, there's no need to change a URL, ever, unless a court order says you have to.

Jim

[AjiNIMC]

Yeah don't change URLs, or atleast go to google webmaster tool and see how many pages have backlinks and avoid changing it.

Aji

[jd01]

Cool URIs don't change.

I agree, but it looks like the new ones are the 'cool' ones, and I would probably (without question) change them myself... The old naming convention is ugly at best.

Internal changes (same domain) are not dealt with as harshly as external changes (new domain), so as long as the root domain is the same, the redirects to the new location (within the site) should 'pass weight' and take effect in a fairly short period of time if the redirect(s) are set correctly.

The answer to your question is:
Use a 301 (permanent) redirect to arrive at the new location using only 'one bounce' to get there.

For instance if there is a request for example.com/old-page.html and you redirect example.com to www.example.com, then redirect from www.example.com/old-page.html to www.example.com/new-page.html you are using two redirects, but if you redirect example.com/old-page.html directly to www.example.com/new-page.html you will arrive at the same location in a single redirect. In the first example, the 'weight' of the original page will not be passed to the new page (2 redirects --- AKA multiple or 'stacked' redirects), but in the second example it will (1 redirect).

Justin

BTW: Welcome to WebmasterWorld!