301 question - old and new URLs are both ranking

[Jez123]

Hi, I have recently redesigned my site and moved to the Wordpress platform. The site went live over the weekend and somehow google has indexed one of the new pages and ignored the 301 redirect. Now the old page ranks in #1 for it's main term and the new page ranks #2, below it.

What is the best course for this? Should I go to WMT and delete the old URL from the google index or should I wait until google sorts itself out? As far as I can tell this has only happened with one page - but also WMT tells me that only 1 page is indexed so far from the new sitemap.

Hope someone can advise...

[goodroi]

Have you used a header checker to make sure the 301 is setup properly?

Have you checked your log file to see if Google has revisited the page and noticed you added a 301 redirect?

Why do you think Google is ignoring a 301 redirect?

[Jez123]

Hi goodroi,

Setup seems to be fine.

Not yet.

Well it seems like it has ignored it - but perhaps that's incorrect. I just don't understand why it's serving both pages in the SERP

[tedster]

Even under ideal conditions, it can take up to two weeks for Google to sort out a pile of 301s. /i'd say it's too soon to worry about it. If the http header status is really 301, then put the issue on the back burner.

[maximillianos]

This is only temporary. From what I've seen it typically only lasts for a few days like this (seeing both in SERPs). After that you should start to see only the new destination in SERPs.

[g1smd]

It's sort of good that both appear, as both will be bringing traffic - and your redirect ensures the visitor asking for the old URL actually gets to see the right content.