URL Structure 301 redirect, help needed

Hi there,

I have a live website for which i have re-written the url structure in exel sheet.
I have updated that url structure in beta(development)site...
before going to live should i redirect(301) from my old live url to new live url, or i should i redirect beta url to new live url...

I m confused please help me asap..

Thanks in advance

If the old urls are important,then redirect each one of them to the new urls,if now,just use 301 on the main domain.
P.S if your site is wordpress based,there are many plugins that can make your job easy.
Take care

GVET001,

Not sure what you mean by beta URL and live URL but you should redirect any old URLs to the new ones.

Only do this if you already have an established site with indexed pages in search. For instance if your old URLs were only floating around out there for a few weeks, it probably doesn't make sense to go through and write a ton of directives. On the other hand, if you have lots of URLs indexed in search and receive lots of traffic from search, it would be a good idea to redirect them. Otherwise you will lose traffic to your site from both links you have out there as well as from search.

Perhaps this page will offer some guidance,

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=83105

I know you aren't technically moving your site but the same principles apply.

Hope that helps,

Shawn

mirrorer said:

If the old urls are important,then redirect each one of them to the new urls,if now,just use 301 on the main domain.
P.S if your site is wordpress based,there are many plugins that can make your job easy.
Take care

Click to expand...

Thanks..
my website is not wordpress based.. as u suggested i am now implementing 301 on my main domain..
but, does it make sense to redirect beta site url to main domain?

GVSET001 said:

before going to live should i redirect(301) from my old live url to new live url

Click to expand...

If your intention is to go live with new site then do the above

That's right if your main objective is to redirect everything to the new upcoming site you made.

GVSET001 said:

Thanks..
my website is not wordpress based.. as u suggested i am now implementing 301 on my main domain..
but, does it make sense to redirect beta site url to main domain?

Click to expand...

One quick question guys. How long does the 301 redirect have to stay there. Is there a period in which G will index the new urls? Can you delete the directives from htaccess after that?

Zoco1 said:

One quick question guys. How long does the 301 redirect have to stay there. Is there a period in which G will index the new urls? Can you delete the directives from htaccess after that?

Click to expand...

Zoco1,

The length of time it takes Google to index your new URLs can vary. You can speed things up by fetching the site as Google from WMT and crawling all linked pages. You can also submit a change of address for the site to them via WMT. In sites that I have moved before, it typically takes a couple months before old URLs fall out of SERPs.

Remember that search may not be the only thing to worry about in terms of maintaining traffic levels with the redirects. Do you have links on other websites that are configured using your old URLs? If so, as soon as you take down your redirects, those links will break.

Best,

Shawn

Thanks Shawn. Those were exactly my thoughts. Someone that changed the urls by redesigning their site may have to do all the backlinking from the ground up. But I guess that can also be a good thing (in terms of bouncing back from penalties)

GVSET001 said:

Thanks..
my website is not wordpress based.. as u suggested i am now implementing 301 on my main domain..
but, does it make sense to redirect beta site url to main domain?

Click to expand...

Does the beta have any significant relevance or traffic?? Gmail was beta even when it had 2 bazillion visits.... In those cases yes you should 301. IF the beta is closed and nobody knows about it, it'll do very little to 301 to the new site.