Best thing to do with old URLs when utilizing 301 Redirects

[cooldogs]

I am currently working on a major revision for a "homemade" web site that someone else did, making it more SE friendly and professional. This involves changing the names of about 15 pages. (Yes this is necessary).

Some of these pages have decent Google and search engine listings. I have decided to use 301 Redirects in an .htaccess file for these 15 pages with name changes.

However, I am a little new to 301s and I'm not sure what to do with the old pages with the old names during the switch. Do I leave them on the server for a while? Can this be harmful in any way? There are probably some inbound links to the pages.

I will also have a 404 directive in my .htaccess and I'm not sure if that complicates things.

Is leaving the old files on the server just a matter of preference? For some reason I lean toward having both the old and the new files on the server, I think it makes me feel like I would be covering all my bases. How would <b>Google</b> look at the situation with respect to both the old and new pages being on the server?

Thanks.

[tedster]

Hello cooldogs, and welcome to the forums.

It makes no difference if the old files are still on the server - googlebot or any other spider will never see that content if the correct http response is given. If you configure your .htaccess rules correctly, the 301 will be served for those urls that you state. Only the other, truly "bad" urls will get the 404 response.

[cooldogs]

Thanks Tedster, sounds just like what I was hoping for.

It can't actually hurt to have the old files on the server can it? As far as Google and the search engines are concerned?

[tedster]

Only if you make a confguration error. Because of that possibility, it might be a good idea to rename them, add "BAK" to the filename or something like that.

[cooldogs]

Is there a way to know if I have a configuration error? That is besides manually inputing the old page name in the url and seeing what is returned?

[cooldogs]

Sorry, let me rephrase that ... if I manually input the old page name and am taken to the new one successfully, could there still be a configuration error that this test did not catch?

[tedster]

That's what I would do - a live check. Then watch the HTTP headers in an application like the firefox Add-on Lrve HTTP Headers.

[cooldogs]

Sounds good, by the way, if I leave the old pages on the server should I add a No Index meta tag to them.

[g1smd]

If the server is sending a redirect for that URL, then the file is never to be seen again from the web.