Redirect a domain to a subfolder - best for SEO

[apauto]

I just started this thread:

[webmasterworld.com...]

And basically, what I need to do, is to move my whole domain as it is, to a new folder:

www.example.com to www.example.com/folder/

I'm doing this, because I'm expanding the original scope of what i wanted to do with this site. It used to be all about blue widgets, but now I want it to be about all of the different color widgets, so I need to break them up.

Would it be best to just change the directory structure on the site (404 all of the pages), and let google figure it out, or would it be best to do the 301 redirect for a few months, let google index and cache the new pages, and then remove the 301 so I can add the new directories and pages?

Does this make sense? LOL

Thanks everyone!

[tedster]

If you just change all the urls and let Google figure out the 404s, you're throwing away any backlink power your internal urls have - and that can be a lot to throw away. I'd at least 301 redirect any internal urls that have backlinks of any value at all.

More than that, I'd suggest finding a way to expand your scope and not change any urls. Why not just introduce new folders for the expansion content?

[apauto]

Why not just introduce new folders for the expansion content?

tedster, thanks for your reply. The problem is the entire site is dedicated right now to blue widgets. The URLs are like this:

www.example.com/blue-widget-1.html
www.example.com/blue-widget-2.html
www.example.com/blue-widget-3.html

I want all of the color widgets, so I want to change it to:

www.example.com/blue/widget-1.html
www.example.com/red/widget-1.html
www.example.com/black/widget-1.html

the index page of the site would ask users what color widgets they want

But before I add the other colors, I need to redirect everything on the site now into one folder, let google get the changes, and then add the other colors.

What do you suggest? Does my idea make sense?

Thanks

[pageoneresults]

www.example.com/blue-widget-1.html
www.example.com/red/widget-1.html

I'd leave the blue where it is and introduce sub-directories for the new colors. Once all the new colors have been fully indexed, you can then start to think about redirecting the remaining /blue-widget to its respective sub-directory.

Don't upset the power pages now. Use those to juice the new sub-directories and get things flowing. You'll probably give it at least 120-180 days before redirecting those /blue-widget links to the new /blue/widget sub-directory.

[tedster]

Yes - that's exactly what I was trying to suggest. A much happier transition I feel certain.

[ZydoSEO]

Also in response to your question...

>>> would it be best to do the 301 redirect for a few months, let google index and cache the new pages, and then remove the 301

If you ever create a 301 for redirecting Page A to Page B, you will almost never want to remove the 301. Even though Google may have indexed and cached the new Page B, other sites are still linking to Page A. That's why you put the 301 in place to begin with. If you later remove the 301, Page B will lose credit for all of those links to Page A and the links to page A will start throwing 404s. You lose traffic from those sites linking to the old Page A and Page B loses credit for the links... lose/lose situation.

In general, once a 301 is in place you will want it there indefinitely. The only time I change a 301 is if at some point in the future I want to replace Page B with a new Page C. In that case I would modify the original Page A-->301-->Page B redirect so it is now Page A-->301-->Page C and introduce a new Page B-->301-->Page C redirect. This way, you don't have stacked redirects where Page A-->301-->Page B-->301-->Page C.