Getting New Files Indexed After a Redesign
Q. I've finally redesigned my circa-1997
Web site, and all the file names have changed. What should I do to
ensure that the search engines index my new pages?
A. There are technical things you can do at the server level to
redirect all the old file names to the new ones, but quite frankly,
I would simply wait it out and allow nature to take its course in
due time.
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Unfortunately, there may be a period of a few months where
your old pages are still indexed, and your new ones aren't, but
things will work themselves out over time.
Do make sure that you have a custom 404-error page in place that
will display when people click to one of your old pages from the
engines. Also be sure to have some sort of search box and or sitemap
on your 404-error page so that the visitor can actively and easily
seek out what they came to find. Plus, don't forget to check that
the old URLs serve up an actual 404 HTTP header code so that the
engines know to purge them from their databases eventually. You can
check this using any HTTP header viewer tool.
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