Proper way to launch site rebuild

[Onestop]

I am having my site rebuilt on a completely different platform. For now the old version is still live and indexed. Once I am ready to launch I will redirect the site name to the new version and discontinue the old. Obviously, some of the old pages in google will be cashed away and show up in search results. What should I do about this? The pages will not be there. Anything else I am not thinking of?

[JohnW]

>I will redirect the site name to the new version and discontinue the old

Make sure to 301 redirect at the page level, not just the site. This will help with both rankings and traffic.

[Onestop]

If I did I guess it would solve the issue of the old pages sitting out there in the index with nothing to show when clicked on. Any suggestions on how to go in and redirect 40,000 item landing pages to a new page? The page names will not be the same so I can't use that. The old site was dynamic. I also cannot generate a site map on the old platform so I can't use that to match up either.

[JohnW]

hmmm. I am sure there is a way to automate it but figuring it out is not likely to happen in a forum ;-)

maybe do a Google search site:yourdomain.com and worry about 301 redirecting the top 100-200 pages. Then, 301 the others to the home page.

[Onestop]

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking the same thing. The old site was so bad I am not sure I want the page rankings to carry forward anyway. Best to only go with the top pages.

[cryptblade]

Originally Posted by Onestop

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking the same thing. The old site was so bad I am not sure I want the page rankings to carry forward anyway. Best to only go with the top pages.

well, if there are existing page rankings, you don't want to lose traffic (if any) from them by doing a "cold turkey" relaunch. You never know - the rankings may help, no matter how abhorrent you think the old site is.

just think of it as keeping your SE equity. preserving any bit of it helps.