Stop! Don't Move - One of the Most Common SEO Mistakes Website Owners Make
I used to think that this was obvious because I have been doing SEO for too long. *lol* But I found that there are many clients that still do not know the single most important SEO strategy for content:
What I mean is, don't change the URL where the content lives. I have recently had a client who has an internal content management and production system that causes URLs to move (change) after a certain amount if time. They couldn't understand why their search listings kept fluctuating so much. They have since developed a migration strategy for their content (which consists of setting up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one) in the event they have to change their URLs.
The point is though, changing your URLs disconnects your link connectivity unless you implement 301 redirects. Search engine rankings, especially those of Google are hugely dependent on links, especially relevant external links. But moving the content means that any links that you might have had, are no longer seen unless you implement a redirect. And even though 301 redirects work, they take time to do so and can quickly become tedious, if not difficult to manage. But make sure you use a 301 redirect (permanent) which passes Page Rank versus a 302 redirect (temporary and bad for SEO) which does not pass Page Rank. If you don't know what kind of redirect you have, use this http header check function on your URL with the redirect to find out.
The best idea though, is not changing the location of your content once its published.
Update: Please note that we are not saying that all missing pages should 301 to a certain page. Pages that do not really exist should still have error 404s and not 301s. Only moved pages that existed in an old URL should 301 to a new URL.
Once you publish content, don't move it!
What I mean is, don't change the URL where the content lives. I have recently had a client who has an internal content management and production system that causes URLs to move (change) after a certain amount if time. They couldn't understand why their search listings kept fluctuating so much. They have since developed a migration strategy for their content (which consists of setting up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one) in the event they have to change their URLs.
The point is though, changing your URLs disconnects your link connectivity unless you implement 301 redirects. Search engine rankings, especially those of Google are hugely dependent on links, especially relevant external links. But moving the content means that any links that you might have had, are no longer seen unless you implement a redirect. And even though 301 redirects work, they take time to do so and can quickly become tedious, if not difficult to manage. But make sure you use a 301 redirect (permanent) which passes Page Rank versus a 302 redirect (temporary and bad for SEO) which does not pass Page Rank. If you don't know what kind of redirect you have, use this http header check function on your URL with the redirect to find out.
The best idea though, is not changing the location of your content once its published.
Update: Please note that we are not saying that all missing pages should 301 to a certain page. Pages that do not really exist should still have error 404s and not 301s. Only moved pages that existed in an old URL should 301 to a new URL.
posted by Catfish at
3:29 PM
6 Comments:
nice info from this website...hope it will help newbie like me to resolve this problem...in order to share some good tips regarding seo, visit this blog http://tips-belajar-seo.blogspot.com/ for you to have best results in 3 major search engine
This is one little piece of information that's neglected by many. 301s are definitely better than 404s for SEO.
Nice one!
There is no reason to keep changing urls unless you have a web redesign or you change language. However I've become quite convinced that 301 and 302 redirects are treated pretty much the same these days... isn't 307 the new temp redirect? As far as I know it's a HTTP1.0 HTTP1.1 issue.
Although I always opt for a 301 myself. A 404 is VERY BAD!
Hi Robert,
Ever since the Big Daddy update, Google has gotten a lot better at consolidating URLs and often times I do see instances where 302s appear to be treated as 301s. However this behavior is inconsistent and is not true in Yahoo and MSN. Therefore, in order to ensure that your search strategy is effective across all engines, I still recommend ensuring that you are using 301 redirects instead of 302s. As a matter of fact, I just delivered a solution to a Fortune 500 company that was inadvertently hijacking another Fortune 500 companies pages because of 302 redirects. This happened last week and the behavior still exists. So clearly, 302 redirects still have issues, even in Google.
Hi Ray,
Thanks for enlightening an internet veteran like me on 301 redirects. When I run several sites, sometimes an odd page needs to be moved or deleted. These are very handy.
Can a 301 be used to redirect traffic & page/SERP rank to a new page on the same domain as the original page too?
I agree that its usually best to never move your ranked pages.
Hi Dave,
I have seen it happen both ways where rankings change to the new page and also where the new page doesn't rank as well. It's inconsistent at best and I wouldn't recommend it, but in the event it is unavoidable, the 301 redirect is the best strategy.
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