404 and re directs from an old design to a new one

[SwanJob]

I have a directory that I am redesigning. Currently, the old directory is all 404 pages. I need to use the URL's in the old directory for the new one. Should I redirect all the old pages to the new pages? Or is it better to delete the old pages, let them de index - so that I can use those same URLs? I really need help with this.

[Bryan_Loconto]

Hi Tim,

If the pages you are going to replace are still content rich on a similar vertical (old blue widget to new blew widget) you can do a 301 redirect which will let the search engine know that the page has moved and it will also transfer any of the authority the old page(s) has.

Hope this helps.

[SwanJob]

so all the link juice will go to the new URL's? Man that's going to be a lot of redirects. lol

[Everett]

It sounds like you are just moving the content to a new directory and not changing the filename, correct? If so you can handle that with a single line of code in your htaccess file assuming you are on a Linux server and have access to that file. Most content management systems will probably have some sort of plugin/module for that too.

Yes, redirect them so the pagerank earned from external links into the old URL will move on to the new URL. It is a simple thing to fix that could have a profound impact on rankings if those old pages had external links.

By the way, update all internal links so you are linking to the new URL instead of relying on the redirects to do that for you. This is just best practice and good housekeeping.