Permanent Redirects

[icoombs]

Hi all.

Just a curiosity question really.

2 months or so ago, i had a site redesigned and some content was moved to new URLs. as an example on the original site all URL requests went through the index page and then parameters displayed the correct content, now most pages have their own URL.

In the new index page we have redirects for the old URLs to the new pages ie.

index.asp?mode=news&newsID=264

Now redirects with the following code.

if request.querystring("mode") = "news" Then
 theURL = "news.asp?newsID=" & request.querystring("newsID")
 Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently"
 Response.AddHeader "Location", theURL
 Response.Flush
end if

So the new page is "news.asp?newsID=264"

This has now been in place for over two months but we keep seeing Google searching the old URLs.

How long will it take Google to stop using the old URLs and directly access the new pages.

Any comments on this would be gratefully received.

TIA
Ian

[wige]

Simple answer: forever.

First, just to be overly cautious, visit the site with a header tool and verify that the site is actually redirecting with the 301 response code.

For as long as links to a URL exist, Google will continue checking that URL. With a 301 redirect in place, Google should drastically reduce how often it rechecks the original URLs, but it will periodically recheck each URL that has incoming links.

[Dubbya]

Originally Posted by icoombs

This has now been in place for over two months but we keep seeing Google searching the old URLs.

How long will it take Google to stop using the old URLs and directly access the new pages.

As long as you still have IBL's (inbound links) that refer to the old pages, Google will keep following them looking for those pages.

The only way to prevent this is to find those links and update them.

.02