Redirecting URLs when launching a new website - how to avoid dropping page rank

Redirecting URLs when launching a new website - how to avoid dropping page rank - .htaccess files are extremely useful in many cases for users who either do not have root permissions or for users who simply aren't comfortable in making changes in their web server's configuration file. Trying to debug .htaccess not working isn't always the easiest thing to do, however, hopefully by checking the discuss below mentioned about seo, search-engines, htaccess, url-rewriting, .htaccess common problems as well as the troubleshooting tips, you'll have a better grasp on what you may have to modify to get your .htaccess file running smoothly.Problem :

i have over 100 urls in my website which i need to redirect:

E.g.

• /page/how-to-bake-chocolate-cookies/ will redirect to /cookies/how-to-bake-chocolate-cookies/


• /page/contact/ will redirect to /contact-us/

and so on...

I want to make sure search engines will catch the new url without affecting my site's quality, ranking, etc...

How can I best accomplish this and avoid users experiencing 404 errors and make sure Google will correctly index my new pages?

Solution :

The best way is to use 301 redirects in your .htaccess file, the 301 code signals to google that the url has been permanently redirected.

I'd also recommend signing up for Google Webmaster Tools and submitting a sitemap to them, if you haven't already, as this will help them to understand the changes you're making to your site.

redirect 301 /old-url http://www.yoursite.com/path-to/new/page.html

This article from teknocrat and this query should give you some more information

With regard to speeding along the respidering and re-caching of the site consider running Google Adwords to the new pages (even if it’s a small budget $100/$200) – effective, usually cuts revisit time 50% or more.

Additionally, if you would like to do some further testing, give the htaccess tester tool a try. It allows you to specify a certain URL as well as the rules you would like to include and then shows which rules were tested, which ones met the criteria, and which ones were executed.