Keeping ranking with new dynamic Site

[Catalyst]

I do SEO for a company that has Hundreds of #1 Rankings and Great PR and even though the site is dynamic we just got over 1500 pages indexed.

Management wants to build an entirely new site (same domain) in a different programming language. Our pages are currently .tpl - new site will be .asp.

So there is no way we can keep our page names the same and I worked sooooooo hard to get all the listings I don't want to lose anything in the transition.

What can we do? Can we keep our existing site up and use re-directs? (Most SE don't like re-directs.) We can't just change all the pages to say "click here it go to our new site." We'll lost ranking on old site due to removing the content. We won't want to maintain and keep up with new products & pricies on the old site - we want people on the new site. So we can't keep the old site up for too long.

Please help with ideas for the best way to make this transition without losing eveything we have worked so hard for. We are getting GREAT Google traffic and can't afford to lose it!

Thanks, Linda

[edited by: Catalyst at 8:40 pm (utc) on Nov. 17, 2002]

[GoogleGuy]

Can you keep old system? ;) Just kidding. Using redirects should be fine. Since this is a permanent change, probably 301 is better than 302. Also try to make sure that you find as many people who link to your site and make sure that they switch so that they link to the correct pages.

[Catalyst]

WOW GG - thanks for the quick and easy answer. I was having nightmares about this! I have never programmed 301 error pages. Do we have to tell each OLD page what the name of each NEW page is (we have over 5,000 pages)? Or do we just keep the page names the same and tell the .tpl page to look for the .asp page with the corresponding name?

Thanka Again!

[jatar_k]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com] Catalyst

There are a ton of threads around dealing with mod_rewrite and/or redirects just use the "site search" link in the upper left hand corner.

here's one to get you started.

[webmasterworld.com...]

jdMorgan lays it out pretty well