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July 31, 2017
Answered

Website relaunch

  • July 31, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 334 views

We just rebranded our website and will be relaunching new site with fewer pages.  what if someone enters an old url that doesn't exist?  do i need remove all the old urls that are not on new site?  if so, how?  thanks!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Nancy OShea

    John T Smith,  this is not product specific so I'm going to answer it here.

    jcash1234​,

    If you don't want to lose SEO traction from old URLs, use a permanent 301 Redirect on your server.  It's very simple to do on Linux hosting with an .htaccess.  If you're on Win IIS hosting, contact your hosting provider to help you.

    I agree that a custom 404 error page is a good thing to have regardless. Every site should have one.  And to make it user friendly, add a search form and site navigation menu so people can find what they're looking for.

    Don't forget to create a new XML site map and robots.txt file & submit to Google via your Webmaster Tools account.   It will probably take a month for Google to fully index your new site.

    Nancy

    3 replies

    Nancy OShea
    Community Expert
    Nancy OSheaCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    July 31, 2017

    John T Smith,  this is not product specific so I'm going to answer it here.

    jcash1234​,

    If you don't want to lose SEO traction from old URLs, use a permanent 301 Redirect on your server.  It's very simple to do on Linux hosting with an .htaccess.  If you're on Win IIS hosting, contact your hosting provider to help you.

    I agree that a custom 404 error page is a good thing to have regardless. Every site should have one.  And to make it user friendly, add a search form and site navigation menu so people can find what they're looking for.

    Don't forget to create a new XML site map and robots.txt file & submit to Google via your Webmaster Tools account.   It will probably take a month for Google to fully index your new site.

    Nancy

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
    John T Smith
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    July 31, 2017

    The Lounge Forum is not for technical help, please provide the name of the program you are using so your message may be moved to the correct program forum... A program would be Dreamweaver or Muse or ???

    Szalam
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    July 31, 2017

    You can set up your website to have a custom 404 page that either just redirects to your main page or says "sorry, the link you clicked on isn't correct, try going to our main page" (or whatever).

    Alternatively, you can set up redirects to specific pages on your new site that match the info that were on the pages that the old URLs pointed to.