Changing Web Pages: Hurt Or Not?

[razsports]

Hi,

I currently have a sports web directory page setup. I made this page by hand using CSS/HTML. The google page rank is 3. The baseball directory page also has a page rank of 3 and is listed on page #3 under the term, baseball directory.

Again, all these pages were made by hand using CSS/Html and end in .html such as raz-sports.com/baseball-directory.html.

All this being said, I've finally found and designed a new directory script that is built using php and search engine friendly.

My question is how do I change these currently .html directory pages over to the new php directory with OUT losing my page ranks and search placement in google?

Finally, will google not read my current .html pages and the new pages as same content?

Thanks for any help you can supply.

[freehits]

You will be mod rewriting to save the past listings - but for me that goes with the assumption that you old pages listed will have compatible counterparts in the new design.

Or to say, will the pages you dont wish to lose have a replacement page for each one?

assuming they all will have a new look but same page with a different url, you should be able to either straight rewrite them like they never left, and keep all the same urls' or 301 them.

The issue I see is that your site shows 166 pages in the index at Google but many of them I noticed are dead links or old pages already.

You will likely need this information from Jaan
http://www.jaankanellis.com/301-redirection-help/

assuming you need only to save a handful of pages this is probaly the best bet. Design the site however feels right and 301 the important pages to new counterparts and let the dead and outdated pages and links just die or 404.

My last redo of a pr 5 strong ranking site, I save most the old urls by rewriting to new pages but didnt worry about every old page, and actually the better planned new design paid off in the longrun, as its back to #1 in bigdaddy.

[razsports]

"The issue I see is that your site shows 166 pages in the index at Google but many of them I noticed are dead links or old pages already."

I am confused cause all my new pages show up on google and several of them rank well. I don't see any of my old pages showing up well on google.

[freehits]

http://www.raz-sports.com/sports-blogs.html
http://www.raz-sports.com/sports-links.html
http://www.raz-sports.com/baseball-camps-links.html

and many other similar structured urls are page not found.

[MeanSEO]

“if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!”

I have seen this mistake time and time again.

I would start a new site with the new script and cross link.

[MeanSEO]

“if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!”

I have seen this mistake time and time again.

I would start a new site with the new script and cross link.

[G[dot]com]

I DEFINETILY second suesheboy´s suggestion.

More than an 'update', you may be about to commit a massacre.

Btw, php scripts can be friendly, buy we know that the key still is clean html.

You did a good work already, keep it, expand it -i know how tedious this is... I am currently updating a +300 html pages site ( www.pc-adictos.com.ar ) but ranks first in its categories! What am I to do? My client knows this is "old techonology" but as well, after having 2 previous sites, this one was the only one who really worked.

Every update is painful, but I know I am not putting at risk the things achieved for trying to make the updates easier for me.

My humble opinion. Good luck. :)

[MtraX]

Check your server logs for pages not found and add the permanent (301) redirects as hoptoo suggested to the new content to make sure that traffic is not lost to you. This is surely the easiest way.

[Orion]

Here's a great solution!

Create a .htaccess file..
Place this line in it save it upload it
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .html

Done, now you can keep your .html extensions but change the code on the existing pages to use PHP code!

[Orion]

OH.. and make your site maintenance easier... start using SSI (server side includes) in all your sites. again you can use the .htaccess file to have .htm or .html extensions parse SSI... or use the .php extension and use the includes function in php!

[Mac 5]

I agree with the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!” That doesn't mean you can never add new content though. If you really want to try your new php script add another division to your site, for example "fantasy football" or something not covered on your site. Make all the pages in your php program and link it to your existing site. Try to SEO the site and see if you can make it on the search engines as a small test. Leave the old pages in html/CSS, keep updating them the way you did before, new pages php.

My opinion is if you switch everything over on your old site, you will lose your placement and start over on the engines. Depends also on your motivation for having a site. Is it just for fun, learning experiment, source of revenue, full time job, etc. Evaluate how much you have to lose or gain, before you gamble it.

I agree with the other comments on adding a 301, do that regardless of the php issue.

[Bluevoodu]

well... sometimes you have to fix something that isn't broke because you need a new app for a second part of your site.

Personally, I have changed my site 6 times in the last 4 years. I've been molding it ever since. The largest change came last January ('05) when I went to a dedicated server, merged my 3 sites into 1, went from html pages to php pages for the main directory (folder) pages, and a bunch of other things.

I did 301 redirects in the .htaccess file and it worked good. It took awhile for the search engines to creep back up. Most parts of my site have a PR of 3-4. 1 part of the site is supposed to get a PR of 5 soon.

Now, I am assuming you made new pages (php) to replace your old (HTML) pages. The PHP pages are identical to your html pages, just with a different extension? Orion showed you how to change which file shows when you call a certain folder, but you should also do 301 redirects for EVERY page that you want redirected.
Say you have index.html, and a few www.yoursite.com/folder/index.hml... you want to redirect those to the new php pages that are the EXACT same so that the search engines and visitors get to them seamlessly. You can do that via the link Hoptoo posted. Just modify the code for your site. make sure it is a 301 redirect though.. and always check your headers after you are done.
Once again.. REDIRECT every old html page that you want to follow through to the new page. Keep checking your server logs like mtrax said as well, just to make sure you got all the pages redirected.

I hope this all made sense... in a bit of a hurry posting, I have to head out in a minute.

Change is inevitable... be prepared to adapt to change.

†B†V†

[razsports]

Hello to everyone who responded :)

I thank you all for your help and suggestions. I will try to respond to every person who responded. I am taking notes as we speak.

On a real happy note :) my articles and blogs pages are getting hit with traffic and authors posting. My current directory pages are receiving suggested site reviews.

However, I am trying to get more traffic to my forums.I have a few ideas. Problem I've ran into is trying to edit my forums body, while keeping both my header and footer as is. Basically, I am trying to get rid of all the forum tables and make them into CSS. However, it is php and I am not yet great with the coding.

[venividi]

Originally Posted by razsports

My question is how do I change these currently .html directory pages over to the new php directory with OUT losing my page ranks and search placement in google?

A semi-dynamic solution: build static pages dynamically using php and database.

Valeria

[aaron2005]

What orion says is really cool, I was afraid of the .htaccess file until I started getting it to remove missing pages from Google's cache, it is amazing what that one file can do.

[google junky]

I liked orion's idea also.