New web site, what about old links?

[coyotesfan107]

We are in the process of launching a new website, what is the best practice to do with the old pages from the old site?

Should I post a message and then re-direct the page to the home page of the new site?

I just do not want to loose the links and search engine placement for all the old files.

Any advice on this?

Thanks,

Paul

[rustybrick]

The best method is to set up a 301 redirect from the old pages to the new pages.

http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html#sec10.3.2

Are you removing the old files or leaving them on the server? Is it just a design change or more?

[Daria_Goetsch]

There's another discussion in this forum on the same topic, you may find some answers there too:

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forum/showthread.php?t=353

[coyotesfan107]

Here is some more info...

The new site will have new directories, new pages names, etc, etc. The old site is very, very old and we have a new company building our new site. That is fine, but would you suggest creating the old directory tree on this server with re-direct pages for all the pages that are currently up and running?

[rustybrick]

The way the 301 works is that it tells (most) search engines that Page A has moved to Page B.

If Page A has different content then Page B, then your rankings for Page B will be lost or be affected.

[Webmaster T]

I would be very careful about this! I have experienced a very bad outcome from taking content from site A and putting it on new domain B. The outcome was the newer site is hard to find in Google likely due to better detection of duplicate content and IMO, poor implementation of the results found using the filter.

There has been some proof/indications that it is possible to negatively impact a competitor with lower PR by duplicating their page. Not saying this is a fact, just that there does seem to be an indication this can be done since the filter seems to use PR as the basis for what is included in the results and what is excluded. IMO, something to consider when syndicating articles.

IMO, redirect using a 301 from all pages on site A to the corresponding page on site B. I assumed since all the content on site B was updated and edited this wouldn't be a problem. It was fine for every SE except Google. The others show both or removed the old site and show the newer one. A redirect was out of the question due to redirect policies of the original ISP.

It appears as though the whole of site B has been penalized (whitebar on every page) even though the IBL's to the newer site are now higher then the old site and new content is indexed, it just doesn't place very well on G due to PR 0. ;)

I could near double the IBL's by taking down site A and contacting site owners to update the url but it has been mentioned in a few books and IMO, taking it down is disrespectful to those who mentioned it.

[coyotesfan107]

oK, our current old site is ancient. The new site will be similar, but all content will be changed updated and optimized.

Will it be bad to take all the current pages on the old site and post a refresh on them to re-direct them to our new main home page. I just do not want to loose any customers linking on our current links in SE's.

Thanks - everyone has been GREAT!!

Paul

[David Wallace]

Best thing to do is set up 301 permanent redirects to each page. This way search engines and user will find the new pages. Any PageRank the pages had will be passed on.

If you are on a Unix hosting environment, you simply modify the .htaccess file. If Windows, then that is done in ISS I believe.