will a Redesign be bad for search engines?

Discussion in 'Google' started by tommyda, Nov 23, 2007.

  1. #1
    I need to rediesign some of my websites which means changing page names, directory names ect

    But i am scared of my organic traffic seeing a 404 error

    I know i could use 301 redirects but i dont want to get stung for duplicate content, msn dropped one of my sites as soon as i setup 301 redirects

    Help!!
     
    tommyda, Nov 23, 2007 IP
  2. ForgottenCreature

    ForgottenCreature Notable Member

    Messages:
    7,473
    Likes Received:
    173
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    260
    #2
    No, it won't be. If you use 301 redirects then you should be fine.
     
    ForgottenCreature, Nov 23, 2007 IP
  3. linkmanager

    linkmanager Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    2,432
    Likes Received:
    113
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    135
    #3
    301 helps for Google but not for yahoo and msn :( Y and M don't realy like 301 and it need much time
     
    linkmanager, Nov 23, 2007 IP
  4. ForgottenCreature

    ForgottenCreature Notable Member

    Messages:
    7,473
    Likes Received:
    173
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    260
    #4
    Yes, they do. Give them time to re-index the new pages.
     
    ForgottenCreature, Nov 23, 2007 IP
  5. alex_d1

    alex_d1 Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,522
    Likes Received:
    59
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    120
    #5
    When you set up your 301 redirects - had you already deleted all of the old files from the server ??
    If you had done, then I can't see a problem for you regarding duplicate content, since the original form of the content would no longer exist.

    As for MSM dropping your site - what percentage of traffic did you get from them ?? My guess is loess than 5%.
     
    alex_d1, Nov 23, 2007 IP
  6. gibex

    gibex Active Member

    Messages:
    1,060
    Likes Received:
    21
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    95
    #6
    just use proper redirects. MSN/Yahoo are very poor on traffic
     
    gibex, Nov 23, 2007 IP
  7. proinet

    proinet Peon

    Messages:
    82
    Likes Received:
    3
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #7
    A site redesign can always be a big boost to your rankings. Try to design the new pages with good SEO from the ground up, with well wriiten title tag, meta description, prper use oh headline tags, and move your content up as close to the top of the page source code as possible.

    As others have stated, 301 redirects are the proper way to do it. I use htaccess to write my redirects and Google updates accordingly.
     
    proinet, Nov 23, 2007 IP
  8. aeromit

    aeromit Guest

    Messages:
    113
    Likes Received:
    4
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #8
    If you do not include any kind of duplicated content, URL or "spamming" keywords and phrases you should be fine. Your pages have become searchable because of the quality content. They should stay like this. Of course you will change the way search engines see then if you make complete change in Meta tags.
     
    aeromit, Nov 23, 2007 IP
  9. markov

    markov Peon

    Messages:
    3,010
    Likes Received:
    37
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #9
    If you have deleted the old files from the server, then there would be no question of duplicate content.
     
    markov, Nov 24, 2007 IP