changing page names [Archive]

mcarey101

11-01-2003, 04:20 PM

I am doing a redesign on our site and will be changing page names everywhere. Since several of these pages are indexed by search engines, what is the best way to do this ? Do I want to keep a page with the old name that has a meta refresh to the new page name ? I want the search engines to pick up the names and not index the old ones anymore.

Linda Buquet

11-01-2003, 05:58 PM

mcarey101,

I moved this from the affiliate marketing forum where you posted - to the SE forum where you can get more advice. I used to do SEO but am a little rusty. I'm sure someone here will help you!

TheWebDoctor(tm)

11-01-2003, 06:34 PM

People will tell you to keep the older page and include a link to the new page.

However, the best route to take is to utilize the .htaccess or IIS equivalent to perform a server-side redirect. The search engines will catch the name change in the returned URL and update their information.

This technology has been around since before we had web sites. People just didn't use it very much. I won't go into a history lesson, I actually love this type of history.

But, what you want to do it something of this nature:

Redirect /oldpage.html http://www.yourdomain.com/newpage.html

Note, that needs to be on one line.

That will redirect any requester to the new file name.

If you are removing a page forever, you can use the following:

Custom Error 404 Page
ErrorDocument 404 /nofile.html

Redirect to index page
ErrorDocument 404 /index.html

Of course, if your extensions are different than .html you will need to make that appropriate change.

I hope this helps you and everyone else.

minstrel

11-01-2003, 08:14 PM

However, the best route to take is to utilize the .htaccess or IIS equivalent to perform a server-side redirect.

This is already implied here but perhaps should be emphasized: NT/IIS servers don't use the .htaccess file so it will not work on an NT server.

But, what you want to do it something of this nature:

Redirect /oldpage.html http://www.yourdomain.com/newpage.html

Note, that needs to be on one line.

That will redirect any requester to the new file name.

My preference is to leave a small page at the old address to redirect the request to the new file, so that spiders and human visitors can see what's happening, i.e., something along these lines:

"The page you have requested has been moved or modified. Please update your bookmarks. Please update your bookmarks. If your browser supports this feature, you will be automatically taken to the new site in 10 seconds. Otherwise, please click on the link below:

http://www.yoursite.com/newpagename.htm."

...so that the new page name is clearly displayed on the "error" page. You can then use a delayed redirect as follows:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT="10; URL=http://www.yoursite.com/newpagename.htm">

placed in the <HEAD> section of your HTML, where the "10" part indicates the number of seconds before the redirect occurs (change it to whatever you like).

Although not the main reason for me preferring this form of redirect, someone in another thread at WPW suggested that some spiders may react negatively to a "hidden" redirect in some circumstances, e.g., when the site name or domain name has changed and you are trying to redirect visitors from your former site to your new one.

anuj_pandit1

11-03-2003, 12:39 AM

Hello,

Just do one thing :

>> You can redirect your old page to new page.
>> Another way is that when somebody will open the old page then the new page will replace old page content ot old oage ( Defau;t new page will Open within some time and old page will open).

I think it will help you....

Regards
Alok Kumar Upadhyay