Changing URLs will lose traffic?

[bleached]

Iīve had my site revamped and basically all my URLs have been changed (as they were poor). I have considerable traffic coming from old URLs and I don't want to lose this traffic. If I keep the old URLs I have duplicate content issues. My question is, will 301 redirects stop me from losing my old URL traffic?

Thank you to all responders!

[g1smd]

You need a set of 301 redirects to direct traffic from the old URL to the new one.

You'll need to get these installed very quickly.

They should have been an integral part of your website migration plan.

[bleached]

I have actually contracted a company to do this revamp for me (the new site is not online as of yet). In the contract a clause stated:

"A system is in place that allows the client to map old URLs with page rank to new system so as to not lose any existing page rank"

Now the business is saying this didnīt include 301 redirects. What system then? I really canīt afford to lose this existing traffic.

[g1smd]

Hmm, the term *map* is a bit vague, and I am guessing that their interpretation of that is very likely to read "serve content at both URLs".

In this case, you are quite entitled to say that anyone with more than basic SEO knowledge should interpret that to mean a 301 redirect.

[bleached]

If these 301 redirects are properly in place, in theory I shouldnīt lose any existing traffic from the old indexed URLs?

As with the company, iīm on to them. Iīll keep updated as I really want to know the "system"

[g1smd]

Yes, the 301 redirect preserves your external incoming traffic whilst showing the user the new URL for that content.

[bleached]

Thank you for your insight and professionalism. Greatly appreciated.

[bleached]

Would this following code in a .htaccess file be valid for creating a 301 redirect? A new line for each redirect?

redirect 301 /olddirectory/oldfile.html http://example.com/newdirectory/newfile.html
redirect 301 /olddirectory/oldfile1.html http://example.com/newdirectory/newfile1.html

[edited by: Receptional_Andy at 3:32 pm (utc) on Sep. 24, 2008]
[edit reason] Please use example.com - it can never be owned [/edit]

[g1smd]

You are often far better off using RewriteRule if there is a simple relationship between the old URL and the new URL such that they all follow a similar "pattern" that you can test for,

[bleached]

So this is what the RewriteRule should look like in the .htaccess file (one for each redirect page?)?

RewriteRule ^old_page.php$ http://example.com/new_page.php [R=301,NC]

Sorry for asking such an amateur question but iīm learning this from scratch. I would also like to know why this is better than the previous code I pasted? Cheers.

[edited by: tedster at 8:34 pm (utc) on Sep. 24, 2008]
[edit reason] fix typo [/edit]

[g1smd]

You also need the [L] flag on the redirect.

Is there some pattern to the naming in the URLs?

Like..

- the second word in the old URL is always the second word in the new URL.
- the folder name changes from this to that.

If there is, then the rules can be crafted such that one rule can be a redirect for hundreds or thousands of URLs.

[bleached]

There is little pattern to the URL renaming as the site was originally built to look good. Now the everything is basically changing folders, keywords in the URL etc. We are talking about redirecting only 30 of the 90 URLs of the site.

I presume it is best to redirect each URL individually?

[g1smd]

If there is no pattern then you will have to redirect them individually.

[bleached]

g1smd, I have read many threads about different forms of redirects, but here is my question:

Why should a webmaster use rewriterule (e.g.RewriteRule ^old_page.php$ http://example.com/new_page.php [R=301,NC]) instead of the easier redirect 301 (e.g.redirect 301 /olddirectory/oldfile.html http://example.com/newdirectory/newfile.html )? Thank you

[g1smd]

You are often far better off using RewriteRule if there is a simple relationship between the old URL and the new URL such that they all follow a similar "pattern" that you can test for.

If there isn't, then use Redirect instead.