redirects and re-structuring

Problem we're facing

[stse]

Recently, our web designer made some massive site restructuring and cleaning that removed/relocated thousands of pages. What happened now is that we are encountering a lot of broken links, not so much from internal linking, but more so from external sources (e.g. our business partners, other associations etc etc).

Right now, I am given the assignment to fix it. Here're couple solutions I have:
1) revert to a back up (which is about 1 1/2 months old), even though this would mean losing all the work done on the site for the past 1 1/2 months, but then at least we know all the links before that works.
2) create a lot of redirects. The problem with this is (a) it is going to be a lot of redirects and (b) we would need to keep doing it as we discover more and more "page not found" errors.

Does anyone here have suggestions on how to resolve this problem? this is very important as Google and other search engine ranking relies a lot of link popularity and broken links will hurt us on search engine rankings.

Any advise is appreciated.

[pmkpmk]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld!

Method B is the only one to go if you want to preserve your position. Also it is in the best interest for your visitors.

Actually you better had your redirects ready BEFORE the changes went live. Look at this thread [webmasterworld.com], where the same problem has recently been discussed.

[stse]

Thanks for your advise.

I read the other thread that you referenced me to. In general, how do people manage permanent redirects? e.g. how long do they keep it? what if another major web site change occur, will there then be redirects to redirects? is there some sort of best practices to manage these redirects and separate these re-design redirects to marketing redirects (e.g. www.abc.com/register to go to www.abc.com/forms/register.asp)?

Do you have any resources that I can read up on these situations?

Thanks.

[pmkpmk]

In general, how do people manage permanent redirects? e.g. how long do they keep it?

Well... permanent, as the name implies. We did a drastic makeover more than a year ago, and STILL those redirects get hit. Search engines don't update to their fullest depth in just a couple of weeks. There are still results buried in the big three which show our old links. Permanent redirects don't hurt you. So simply keep them and forget about them sooner or later.

what if another major web site change occur, will there then be redirects to redirects?

I don't even know if that works in Apache - I think it has a redirect-limit of 15 hops or so.

Of course it would not be a good idea to redirect redirects. Instead you use your OLD set of redirects, and change the destination to the NEW location. And then you implement a second set of redirects from the recent pages to the new pages as well.

Like this:

Initial site:
company.com/english.html
company.com/german.html

Makeover #1
company.com/english.html -> company.com/en/index.html
company.com/german.html -> company.com/de/index.html

Makeover #2
company.com/english.html -> company.com/en/products/welcome.html
company.com/german.html -> company.com/de/produkte/willkommen.html
company.com/en/index.html -> company.com/en/products/welcome.html
company.com/de/index.html -> company.com/de/produkte/willkommen.html

One slight problem: since you set a permanent redirect in the first makeover, redirecting that site a second time somewhat seems wrong. In practice, though, I think it should not be a problem.

is there some sort of best practices to manage these redirects and separate these re-design redirects to marketing redirects (e.g. www.abc.com/register to go to www.abc.com/forms/register.asp)?

The best advice is: PLAN your restructurings before you deploy them! Search engines get better and better in following redirects, so it's fine if you make marketing-initiated restructurings. But keep in mind that the web does not forget things (easily), so put up deviation signs for the spiders and the visitors. And again - plan before you deploy!

Do you have any resources that I can read up on these situations?

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, the best resource you can find! It's a community where you can ask, exchange ideas, and hopefully participate with own finds and recipes as well.

[stse]

When you created the redirects? Did you do it through the IIS? or did you use some other software/programs? The reason i'm asking is because doing it through the IIS 1) requires to have the physical file there before i can right click to select "properties" to set the redirect and 2) is difficult to monitor and maintain. Do you have any suggestions on what is a good solution to maintain redirects?

[pmkpmk]

Do you have any suggestions on what is a good solution to maintain redirects?

It's probably not the answer you want to hear... But I would suggest to switch to Apache, preferably on a Unix/Linux system. It's my personal suggestion, but I know I'm with a majority on that one.

If that is not an option for you then you might want to ask the folks over in [webmasterworld.com...] - they deal with Microsoft related issues.

But maybe the latest numbers from Netcraft.com make you rethink the server decision:

This month's survey marks a significant milestone for Apache, which now serves more than 40 million sites. The open source Apache server reached 10 million sites in June 2000, 20 million in November 2001 and 30 million in November 2003. After nearly no change in server market share in 2004, Apache extended its lead over Microsoft by 1 percent last month and another 0.4 percent this month, and now runs on 68.8 percent of web sites, compared to 20.9 percent for Windows servers.