Site Redesign

How to avoid search engine problems on redesign.

[Web_Player]

I am going to completely redesign a couple of sites that have been up for years and have reasonable rating on the engines.

My question is: Is there a best way to avoid search engine problems when redoing a site? I plan to rename all files and page titles but am concerned about existing search engine listings and bookmarks.

Is it a good idea to post the new pages along with the old pages for a couple of months or simply delete all the old site pages and directories?

I usually do new sites or expand existing site so I am looking for any experience in this area that will minimize engine and viewer problems.

Any suggestions will be appreaciated.

[edited by: rcjordan at 10:52 pm (utc) on April 11, 2003]
[edit reason] sorry, no references to your site, please. [/edit]

[Filipe]

The easiest way is to keep up old pages for however long, and post links (though not redirects) to the new pages or pages relevant to them. Then, if there aren't TOO many, try to contact other websites linking to those pages and ask them to update their links. After a month or two (if keeping the pages on the server isn't an option) then you can set up some slow META redirects (5+ seconds, with a link if they want to go faster) or a server-side a 301 PERMANENT REDIRECT.

You should never leave anybody in the dust.

Finally, for all those other 404's, use a custom 404 page, so that users know the page has just been removed, not the entire site.

[Web_Player]

Thanks Filipe:

I figured along those lines but appreciate the input. The 404 is not always available as some hosts don't allow for that option.

The only good thing is the company is also being sold at the same time so all reps and companies should be notified. Some have duplicate product pages so they will want to change.

I figure that with a little luck, I won't lose any users and will improve the site's rankings, which considering the site's orginal state shouldn't be difficult to do. I just don't want to get dropped from some of the engines because it may be difficult to get relisted without paying.

Thanks for the input