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Migration from index.html to index.aspx - can it cause troubles?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by tvangeste, Dec 3, 2009.

  1. #1
    Hails Folks!
    Several days ago I got a terrible drop - my website has simply disappeared from SERP yet it is in Google index. It was ranked high and had about ten number one positions and about 30 Google top ten positions. Then we changed its index page from index.html to index.aspx - all text remained the same, all meta data remained the same. all inbound links point to the domainname.com, not to domainname.com/index.html

    what do you think? is it another Google madness and the site will be back in 2-3 weeks (I had such experience a couple of times) or it has something with the migration from index.html to index.aspx?

    Honestly - I am puzzled. I have 10 years of seo experience and this is the first time the site lost ALL of its positions including its original name in Google results! It's like "5 days ago it had over 50 top ten results and now it doesn't have any in top 1000" ... heeelp!
     
    tvangeste, Dec 3, 2009 IP
  2. bryanon

    bryanon Well-Known Member

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    #2
    Do a redirect from index.html to index.aspx ASAP!
     
    bryanon, Dec 3, 2009 IP
  3. tvangeste

    tvangeste Peon

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    #3
    yeah - this is what I asked our web developer to do several days ago (and it's still not done). Do you think this might be the problem? I mean - I considered this as one of possible reasons but I though like this: Google indexes the website so if it's http://site.com/ it doesn't matter what type of index page is used (index.html. index.php, index.aspx...whatever) - Google simply indexes the current index so if one index is replaced with another one but both have identical body text and meta data - there should not be any serious problems. At least it was my logic. Though it's easy to check - I believe we'll get the 301 redirect set up tomorrow. Thanks Bryanon! Any other thoughts?
     
    tvangeste, Dec 3, 2009 IP
  4. speakeasy602

    speakeasy602 Active Member

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    #4
    it really shouldn't make a difference if it's index.html or index.aspx, but it's important that the redirect is there just in case. What's your URL??
     
    speakeasy602, Dec 3, 2009 IP
  5. sultanofseo

    sultanofseo Notable Member

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    #5
    if your site is already ranked and have its own backlinks, then changing the file extension will make drastic impact on your ranking. immediately after you upload the new index page, you should 301 redirect the old page to the new one to keep your ranking stable
     
    sultanofseo, Dec 3, 2009 IP
  6. tvangeste

    tvangeste Peon

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    #6
    Please don't think I am not agree with you but why? I though if the content is identical, meta data (title, description and all the rest of meta stuff) are identical, all backlinks point to http://domain.com/ instead of http://domain.com/index.html - the migration should be painless. Apparently it's wrong. I am trying to find all possible reasons even though I believe it's because of the cursed change of the index page.
     
    tvangeste, Dec 3, 2009 IP
  7. bryanon

    bryanon Well-Known Member

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    #7
    Nope - Google indexes the actual URL (i.e. yoursite.com/index.html). The fact that it shows the site as yourside.com in search results is irrelevant.
     
    bryanon, Dec 3, 2009 IP
  8. tvangeste

    tvangeste Peon

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    #8
    Damn... that is not good at all then....
    I've asked our server admin to add 301 redirect. I'll keep you updated on this.
     
    tvangeste, Dec 3, 2009 IP
  9. Traffic-Bug

    Traffic-Bug Active Member

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    #9
    Put a 301 redirect from index.html to index.aspx in your site's htaccess.
    Further, put a canonical link in index.aspx indicating to google that this is the page you want indexed as the index page.
     
    Traffic-Bug, Dec 3, 2009 IP
  10. tvangeste

    tvangeste Peon

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    #10
    Thanks Traffic-Bug! I'll do that for sute.

    Canonical:
    <link rel="canonical" href="BLAH" />
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2009
    tvangeste, Dec 3, 2009 IP