301 redirects / clean urls

[k9byron]

hello everyone, we moved our site to a new platform that has url rewrite feature. we are building out a spreadsheet of the old aspx urls and the corresponding page on the new site. my dev tells me that its not important to redirect the old page to the new "clean url" page which sounds a bit odd to me ..example below. okay. so he says its the same difference to 301 redirect this url: http://72.3.181.97/catalog/DesignerDogBeds.aspx to this urls: https://www.k9electronics.com/product.php?productid=3474 instead of this clean url: http://www.k9electronics.com/designer-dog-beds/ can anyone give me any feedback on this? thanks!

[maldiniii]

Hello!

To not lose link juice from the old URL's , the best method is to redirect old URL's to new URL's. It's a hard and consuming time work, but you will give relevance to all your new URL's.

Another method is to redirect only old categories into new ones, but it is very possible to lose link juice.

Hope that helps.

[Keszi]

Hi k9byron,

First of all, the three links provided are three very different ones:

1. http://72.3.181.97/catalog/DesignerDogBeds.aspx - no result

2. https://www.k9electronics.com/product.php?productid=3474 - PetSafe PAC19-12069 Spray Refill - Citronella

3. http://www.k9electronics.com/designer-dog-beds/ - designer-dog-beds category

But IF I have understood the question well... Then you are asking which form to use for the redirect.

I would go to redirect the old page to the "clean url". The cleaner the url is, the easier is to optimize for. So go for that version if possible.

I hope it hepled,

Istvan

[Keszi]

with 301 you will lose some of the link juice, but some will be transferred.

I don't remember where I have read regarding this issue, but if I remember well the number was something like 85% transferred? (Correct me If I am wrong)

Cheers,

Istvan

[DocdataCommerce]

Basically, you are asking 2 questions. Is it important to redirect, and what do we redirect to?

1. It is important to redirect old URL's, but only if those URL's are indexed. You see, people may still click on them, as they will still be in the search engines for a while. Of course, if the URL's are not indexed, you don't have to redirect anything. You are correct to use 301 redirects, and you will lose some link juice but it's better than nothing!

2. The best URL is an URL with relevant keywords. Relevant, so 'catalog' does not need to be in the URL. Your example of http://www.k9electronics.com/designer-dog-beds/ is the best URL. It's good because people will understand what your page is about, and search engines like that.

Good luck!

[RobertFisher]

First, your dev is wrong. The url your dev has first is a dynamic url and you do not want that. You can spot dynamic url's by virtue of the ?, &, .cgi-bin etc. The problem is more in conversions than in a lack of indexing, etc.

You do want to redirect url to url and most believe you will get 90 to 99% of the juice. (My experience is that it is over 90%). The preference from what you provided would be the http://www.k9electronics.com/designer-dog-beds/

Lastly, since you are going down this road, I suggest you read this post by Dr. Pete. It gives good advice on eCommerce. I think based on your question you would find it very helpful.

Best