On-Page | What is the proper way to change your URL structure?

[lelou00]

Tried looking around the forum but can't find it..

The example

Previous URL structure: hxxp://blackhatworld.com/my-super-awesome-paypal-money-generator-2015-fully-working

This URL already got links from HQ sites, web 2.0s etc directed to this URL and maybe ranked #10 for the term "paypal money generator"...
Now I want to do proper on-site optimization on the site by making the URL structure looks simpler, shorter & optimized.

New URL: hxxp://blackhatworld.com/best-paypal-generator-sale

Q: What is the proper way of changing the URL structure without losing the power & ranking? Based on my understanding, when I simply change the URL to the new one, I'll have 404 error & obviously losing the link juice...

Do you guys simply do 301 redirect in this case? Canonical URL or any other technique? Mind sharing your strategy to tackle this problem?

Cheers

 

[SEOStrategist]

Yes, do a 301 redirect. It will pass the link juice through.

 

[bc21sek]

I would use 301. Rel canonical should be used when you have pages with duplicated content.

 

[Zwielicht]

I went through this recently in an attempt to procure sitelinks for my site (which I succeeded in doing) in the SERPs as well as to clean up the URL structure of my site. What you have to do is simply organise or change the URLs (e.g., yoursite.com/silly-seo-service to yoursite.com/services/seo) and then use an analytics program to find the most popular pages on your site and 301 redirect the most important pages on your site first (in order to avoid disrupting your visitors). This will allow you to easily make the changes without your visitors noticing.

In the event that you forget to 301 redirect one of the URLs, this actually isn't as much of an issue as you would think. For example, there was a page on my site that I forgot to 301 redirect and I noticed that the page was no longer ranking in the 1st position like it had been because it had been removed from the SERPs entirely as it "no longer existed". After I went back and 301 redirected the page, I managed to slowly climb back up in the SERPs starting on the 3rd page on the first week, 2nd page the second week, position 8 the 3rd week, and finally position 3 on the 4th week.

 

[Madrid4you]

301 is your best choice, so that the link juice pass to the new url

 

[Davidnrog]

Tried looking around the forum but can't find it..

The example

Previous URL structure: hxxp://blackhatworld.com/my-super-awesome-paypal-money-generator-2015-fully-working

This URL already got links from HQ sites, web 2.0s etc directed to this URL and maybe ranked #10 for the term "paypal money generator"...
Now I want to do proper on-site optimization on the site by making the URL structure looks simpler, shorter & optimized.

New URL: hxxp://blackhatworld.com/best-paypal-generator-sale

Q: What is the proper way of changing the URL structure without losing the power & ranking? Based on my understanding, when I simply change the URL to the new one, I'll have 404 error & obviously losing the link juice...

Do you guys simply do 301 redirect in this case? Canonical URL or any other technique? Mind sharing your strategy to tackle this problem?

Cheers

I think 301 redirection is only the best choice and also one of the best method for implementing redirects on a website. It not only redirect's to your desired new customised link but also passes between 90-99% of link juice (ranking power) to your new redirected page.

 

[JuggernautJukey]

What if I don't have visitors .. It's a new article, ranked somewhere in the hundreds, but I want to change the structure.

Do I still need to do a 301?

 

[SEO Link King]

- Use legitimate 301-redirects..
- Divert URL-to-URL, for each page you need to keep.
- Update all on-page joins.
- Try not to chain diverts, on the off chance that you can evade it.
- Include another XML sitemap.
- Leave the old sitemap up incidentally.

Good Luck!

 

[towelfox]

This is why I use an intermediary code/key in my URLs. Hxxp://x.com/articlekey/something-about-whatever I have my cms do the routing against article key and the trailing part of the URL is for seo only and could be anything. I just use a preferred canonical to avoid duplicate content.