Changing URL for same page

[Sunset_Jim]

I would like to change the URL of one of my pages so as to make it more relevant to the key word and the page content. Google has the current page in its index. What is the best way to do this without hurting the SERP of the current page?

[hlbuss]

My guess would be to set up hosting for you new domain, upload the pages of your old site, then take down your old pages, but leave the hosting active for a while. Then, set up a 301 redirect to your new site from your old one. I've never used a 301, but I've read they're the best way to pass ranking/pr to a new site. Here is a link for more info:

[webmasterworld.com ]

[lasko]

I think he means a new url not a new web site..

I always change the url and keep the same content and then redirect any traffic to the old url to the new one at the server not on the page.

If you have a shared hosting you should be able to do this in your control panel other wise you will need to put in a redirect at the server level.

Whatever you do, don't use the meta tag version!

[kriskd]

With my web hosting, they have a file on the server called missing.html that you can edit for just such purposes. I use a meta tag there such that if someone hits a URL that is no longer present, it redirects the user to the main page.

Lasko, why do you recommend against meta tag redirects?

Kris

[lasko]

In the Google guidelines for webmasters it says

Don't employ cloaking or sneaky redirects

Meaning the meta refresh tag.

If you generally need to redirect this should be done at server level.

The meta refresh used to be seen as a trick so robots could crawl the content.

I am sure we had a discussion here on webmaster world that Google guy stated that redirects should be done at the server.

[PatrickDeese]

The preferred method is a 301 response from your server, however G understands that not everyone can configure their servers.

I would either delete the page, and update all inbound links, and use a custom 404 page that perhaps links to your home page or the site map.

If you really don't want to delete the page, put a page using the old file name that only has a link to the page's new location (don't duplicate the content) and use a meta refresh to redirect to the new page after a few seconds.

G will *not* punish you for this. After a couple of weeks, or days, when the new page is in the SERPs, delete the meta refresh page, and allow the old URL 404 as suggested above.