Drupal URL Aliases vs 301 Redirects + Do URL Aliases create duplicates?

[ChristianMKTG]

Hi all!

I have just begun work on a Drupal site which heavily uses the URL Aliases feature. I fear that it is creating duplicate links.

For example:: we have http://www.URL.com/index.php and http://www.URL.com/

In addition we are about to switch a lot of links and want to keep the search engine benefit. Am I right in thinking URL aliases change the URL, while leaving the old URL live and without creating search engine friendly redirects such as 301s?

Thanks for any help!

Christian

[YannickVeys]

You should indeed create 301 redirects from the old redirects to the new aliases. People could have linked to those url's, so you want to keep benefitting from those links and built up value over the years.

url.com/index.php and url.com are 2 different url's in the eye's of SE's so you should redirect that 2. Basic rule is: 1 unique  page should be available on 1 url.

Good luck redirecting!

[ChristianMKTG]

Thank you so much for the clarity Yannick! Lots of site cleanup to commence...

Have a good weekend,
Christian

[YannickVeys]

You're most welcome! Have a good weekend too and lots of success with the cleanup