Scenario
You are upgrading your web site and as part
of the upgrade, it means moving and renaming
particular files.
Danger
Search engines have indexed your entire site
and many pages rank well. By moving and renaming
these files, you run the risk of losing a
lot of traffic and leaving visitors to your
site who follow a search engine link with
the dreaded "Error 404 - File not found"
Strategy
1 - Custom Error Page
You could create a custom error page. The
problem with this solution is that:
a)
You will lose rankings on the next search
engine update as the file will appear to be
non-existent. It could be some time before
the page in it's new location or with a new
name reappears.
b)
Your web site visitors may be frustrated by
the fact that they then have to dig through
your site to find the desired information.
Strategy
2 - Meta Refresh
A meta refresh can be implemented in the <head>
statement of your source code in blank page
with the old file name, which then automatically
redirects visitors to the new page. Example:
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" content="0;URL=http://www.new.com/new.htm">
<TITLE>Page has moved</TITLE>
</HEAD>
Warning:
This is a technique often used by spammers
to trick search engines and it should be avoided,
unless the page is in a section of your site
that isn't spidered.
What
the search engine spammers do is to create
a page that is optimized for certain keywords
and phrases - it usually has no real content.
The page is then picked up by some search
engines, but when a visitor clicks on the
search engine entry, they are redirected to
another site, often unrelated.
It's
a despicable trick, but thankfully most search
engines have filters to detect this. Using
this form of SE deception will see a site
eventually banned or penalized by major players
such as Google.
Strategy
2 - 301 Redirect
A 301 redirect is the most efficient and spider/visitor
friendly strategy around for web sites that
are hosted on servers running Apache (check
with your hosting service if you aren't sure).
It's not that hard to implement and it should
preserve your search engine rankings for that
particular page. If you *have* to change file
names or move pages around, it's the safest
option.
A
301 redirect is implemented in your .htaccess
file.
What
is a .htaccess file?
When a visitor/spider requests a web page
via any means, your web server checks for
a .htaccess file. The .htaccess file contains
specific instructions for certain requests,
including security, redirection issues and
how to handle certain errors.
What
is a 301 redirect?
The code "301" is interpreted as
"moved permanently". After the code,
the URL of the missing or renamed page is
noted, followed by a space, then followed
by the new location or file name
How
do I implement a 301 redirect?
First of all, you'll need to download the
.htaccess file in the root directory of where
all your web pages are stored. If there is
no .htaccess file there, you can create one
with Notepad or a similar application. Make
sure when you name the file that you remember
to put the "." at the beginning
of the file name. This file has no tail extension.
If
there is a .htaccess file already in existence
with lines of code present, be very careful
not to change any existing line unless you
are familiar with the functions of the file.
Scroll
down past all the existing code, leave a line
space, then create a new line that follows
this example:
redirect
301 /old/old.htm http://www.you.com/new.htm
It's
as easy as that. Save the file, upload it
back into your web and test it out by typing
in the old address to the page you've changed.
You should be instantly and seamlessly transported
to the new location.
Notes:
Be sure not to add "http://www"
to the first part of the statement - just
put the path from the top level of your site
to the page. Also ensure that you leave a
single space between these elements:
redirect
301 (the instruction that the page has moved)
/old/old.htm
(the original folder path and file name)
http://www.you.com/new.htm
(new path and file name)
Search
engine spiders & 301 redirects
The 301 redirect is the safest way to preserve
your rankings. On the next spidering, the
search engine robot will obey the rule indicated
in your .htaccess file. The search engine
spider doesn't actually read the .htaccess
file, but recognizes the response from the
server as valid.
In
the next update, the old file name and path
*should* be dropped and replaced with the
new one. Sometimes you may see alternating
old/new file names during the transition period,
along with some possible fluctuations in rankings
as things settle. Don't panic - this is normal
and may take a number of weeks before everything
is back to normal; but the bottom line is,
any change you make has risks - whether it's
altering page text or moving/renaming the
page. Search engines run by their own rules
and can change those rules at any time.
More
fun with 301 & mod_rewrite
The 301 directive is quite powerful. You can
redirect not just single files but entire sites,
e.g.
redirect
301 / http://www.you.com/
The
first "/" indicates that everything
from the top level of the site down should
be redirected.
Note:
using the above is not a good strategy in
relation to search engine rankings as all
current links within the search engine results
will redirect to the top level of the new
location.
A
more powerful set of directives for manipulating
URLs is contained in the Apache mod_rewrite
module, especially useful when moving large
numbers of pages or changing domain names.
Read our tutorial on the apache mod_rewrite
module.
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