changing URL structure = traffic growth?

[sub001]

Neil Patel recently changed his URL structure from /yyyy/mm/dd/post-name to /blog/post-name. He also claimed that this change was responsible for 40% growth in his organic traffic.

I get that by removing the date, the post would appear more "evergreen" and likely attract higher CTR in the search results.

However, I have never been a fan of changing already ranking URLs. Even if properly redirected, there was always the possibility ranking drop after reindexing. Has anything changed with this regard?

Any thoughts/opinions/experience?

 

[seoz87]

Neil Patel recently changed his URL structure from /yyyy/mm/dd/post-name to /blog/post-name. He also claimed that this change was responsible for 40% growth in his organic traffic.

I get that by removing the date, the post would appear more "evergreen" and likely attract higher CTR in the search results.

However, I have never been a fan of changing already ranking URLs. Even if properly redirected, there was always the possibility ranking drop after reindexing. Has anything changed with this regard?

Any thoughts/opinions/experience?

this is the BASIC and one of the first step of SEO. Even Google suggests you to use clean url structure.

as for redirect, I have tried on several websites in several different scenarios and eventually 301 redirect WILL completely pass the existing strength to new url.

 

[sub001]

this is the BASIC and one of the first step of SEO. Even Google suggests you to use clean url structure.

as for redirect, I have tried on several websites in several different scenarios and eventually 301 redirect WILL completely pass the existing strength to new url.

The "basic and one of the first step of SEO" is to define a suitable URL structure BEFORE you have published any content. It is NOT readily recommended when you have thousands of indexed (and ranking) pages.

In other words:

SEO Rule #1: Don't change already ranking URL.
SEO Rule #2: There is no rule #2.

Seriously, however...

301 redirect has always been the recommended approach when changing URLs. So, no change there.

The actual practice (in the not-so-distant past, at least), however, was FAR from 100% safe and always resulted in a period of erratic rankings while Google reindexed the site. This would not be a major problem, if the rankings returned to original. But, I know of numerous cases, when the original rankings never recovered, completely.

What I'm asking is, has Google gotten any better at processing major URL changes, lately? More specifically, is it worth going this path with a site that gets 100,000s of organic visitors every month? And, can you point me to any case studies (with stats, etc.)

 

[seoz87]

SEO Rule #1: Don't change already ranking URL.

search and read about 301 redirects in BHW forum


and like anything else, context matters. So if we are talking bout redirecting millions of pages than anyone would recommend to start small. redirect a couple of hundred urls first to see the impact. 301 typically pass all the ranking to new urls in some time.


https://moz.com/blog/accidental-seo-tests-how-301-redirects-are-likely-impacting-your-brand

 

[sub001]

search and read about 301 redirects in BHW forum


and like anything else, context matters. So if we are talking bout redirecting millions of pages than anyone would recommend to start small. redirect a couple of hundred urls first to see the impact. 301 typically pass all the ranking to new urls in some time.


https://moz.com/blog/accidental-seo-tests-how-301-redirects-are-likely-impacting-your-brand

Which post on BHW applies to my question?

You (should) know all the relevant context from my original post. If you cannot answer my question, please don't clutter the thread. This issue must have been tested hundreds of times. I would rather have somebody tell me what their result was from a recently conducted URL migration, rather than have to go through testing myself. I will do the testing only if necessary (which, I hope should not be the case, now).

Thanks for the link, btw. The relevant part is this:

Update: In the months after this post was published, Google updated their algorithm so that 301 redirects no longer have any authority penalty. Many tests on Wayfair sites have shown that we can now 301-redirect pages without any ranking loss (assuming the page contents are the same, of course). In fact, this also means there is no longer any hit for migrating to HTTPS. It's worth noting that this is not true for 302 redirects, however. We still see rankings loss when 302 redirecting pages to a new URL.

This confirms my original suspicion that there indeed was a recent change in how Google handles 301 redirects.

 

[We Bring Rank]

In my point, you can change the URL structure for already ranked URLs & get better ranking in search results.This is better for e-commerce sites..

 

[vilto]

If you changed your permalinks, do not forget to redirect them all ! (301)

Keep in mind that changing the URLs of your website is Risky for your ranking.

And yes short URL are recommended : website.com/post-name

 

[sub001]

If you changed your permalinks, do not forget to redirect them all ! (301)

Keep in mind that changing the URLs of your website is Risky for your ranking.

And yes short URL are recommended : website.com/post-name

Do you also feel like responding to the question in the OP? Or, are you satisfied with posting generic stuff that doesn't add anything to the discussion?