Will changing permalink structure on subdomain affect main site?

christianbed · Dec 2, 2016

I've got a site with over 500 articles on a subdomain (ex: blog.themoneysite.com). When it was set up years ago, it used a date+article title permalink structure. So articles look like blog.themoneysite.com/2016/12-buy-this-stuff-now

These articles often point back to the main site, but only occasionally do I build links to the articles themselves, so losing linkjuice isn't a big deal.

Aside from the pain of having to 301 each article, I'm wondering what effect changing the permalinks on the blog subdomain might have on the main site, if any?

I'm in uncharted territory here lads, so I'd love to hear from people who have been down this path before.

validseo · Dec 2, 2016

Changing URL structure pretty much always incurs some pain. You have to redirect the old URLs to the new ones, update the canonical URLs, update your sitemaps and feeds, change any ad URLs to those pages, update your site navigation and footers. Then you get a month or two of new pages fighting old pages in the SERPs. SEO traffic and rankings will drop during that time but they won't quite return to normal for some time. If you do it all properly then in about 3-4 months you'll be back where you started with new URLs.

So just make sure you get the format right this time because I guarantee you will never want to do it again.

I suggest you update old posts to make them fresh again. Use "last update" dates. And then promote the updated articles.

But largely you can expect the benefit from the backlinks to your main site to be disrupted for a period of time.

christianbed · Dec 2, 2016

validseo said:
Changing URL structure pretty much always incurs some pain. You have to redirect the old URLs to the new ones, update the canonical URLs, update your sitemaps and feeds, change any ad URLs to those pages, update your site navigation and footers. Then you get a month or two of new pages fighting old pages in the SERPs. SEO traffic and rankings will drop during that time but they won't quite return to normal for some time. If you do it all properly then in about 3-4 months you'll be back where you started with new URLs.

So just make sure you get the format right this time because I guarantee you will never want to do it again.

I suggest you update old posts to make them fresh again. Use "last update" dates. And then promote the updated articles.

But largely you can expect the benefit from the backlinks to your main site to be disrupted for a period of time.

All good points...I'd been prepared to do the 301's (nightmare!), and expected some volatility in the SERPs, but didn't know the timeframe, so that's very helpful. Good point about refreshing articles...that's actually what led me down this path--the info is evergreen, but because of the current link structure, makes it appear to be old/irrelevant.

Appreciate the detailed feedback mate.

Will changing permalink structure on subdomain affect main site?

christianbed

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validseo

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christianbed

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