I have almost done a complete website update and redesign. For my old website I had all the html files in the root folder on the server. For the new version I did it the smart way: by organizing htmls into folders by categories.

The question is, can I keep most of my old pages on the server for a while until the new pages get indexed in order to not get traffic drop??

The second question is should I keep on the server old pages with PR, in order not to loose my current PR??


Need help. Thank you!

dont worry, if its the same website, the rankings wont go down, because you delete the old one. Only if the current one is worse, or less SEO valid, but its not going down because you deleted it, just delete the old files and replace it with a new one

Uh, Ardis??

He is relocating the pages themselves.. Without 301s pointing the old pages to the new pages, he will lose his rankings, at least for a while, probably longer..

You will need to ad 301 redirects in your .htaccess file that tell the search engines the the old pages have been replaced with new pages so that what PR you have is forwarded to the new pages..

I knew I gotta do something like that. Can you be ,please, more specific about how to do that 301 pointing? In godaddy...

Originally Posted by Feydakin

Uh, Ardis??

He is relocating the pages themselves.. Without 301s pointing the old pages to the new pages, he will lose his rankings, at least for a while, probably longer..

You will need to ad 301 redirects in your .htaccess file that tell the search engines the the old pages have been replaced with new pages so that what PR you have is forwarded to the new pages..

http://www.highrankings.com/forum/in...showtopic=5644

http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php

there is a section about redirecting an old domain to a new domain.

FYI, if you've taken down the old pages, you need to 301 redirect them to the new location. I wouldn't do it all at once. You'll effectively lose the links on the old, recognized pages, until they find their way back into the index with the respect and esteem the search engines had for the old copies.

So you suggest updating pages during some period of time (say month) and not all on the same day? But I kind of can't do that since my new website design, page locations, etc. are completely different from old version.

I heard that you CANNOT put new pages to website in the edition to old ones because google will penalize you for the duplicate content badly.
Is that true? Even though the web design is different ?

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

FYI, if you've taken down the old pages, you need to 301 redirect them to the new location. I wouldn't do it all at once. You'll effectively lose the links on the old, recognized pages, until they find their way back into the index with the respect and esteem the search engines had for the old copies.

I heard that you CANNOT put new pages to website in the edition to old ones because google will penalize you for the duplicate content badly.
Is that true? Even though the web design is different ?

No http://www.webmaster-talk.com/the-go...e-content.html

So if there is no penalty for duplicate content, I can just keep the old version files on my server in edition to new files, right? I will do 301 redirects for old pages to new pages, but will keep both versions just in case (for couple of month). Is it fine?

Originally Posted by chrishirst

No http://www.webmaster-talk.com/the-go...e-content.html

By using a 301 redirect on an existing URI, it will cease to exist for search engines, so it won't matter whether the page is physically there or not.

How quickly pagerank transfer, rank transfer would occur after I do 301 redirect?

As long as you do the redirect does it really matter when it shows up in the Google Toolbar??

Originally Posted by Feydakin

As long as you do the redirect does it really matter when it shows up in the Google Toolbar??

I didn't get what you want to say.

I aspect to get an answer, no a question. I assume you mean that PR of new pages will change on the next PR update. But what about keyword rankings, traffic... would I have to wait like 4 month? I hope not.

Originally Posted by Feydakin

As long as you do the redirect does it really matter when it shows up in the Google Toolbar??

traffic is instantly.
SERP positions usually between 4-6 weeks, sometimes longer.

Toolbar PR - who cares!

As long as the domain name and keywords are the same with the same general page content wouldn't it still just get back to its original ranking in a few weeks?

It's hard to say how long it will take to return to the old positions.