Preserving URL Structure from Os Commerce to Magento

[WebServiceConsulting.com]

I have a website that is built on OS Commerce and I am planning to transition to Magento.

I was told that the transition to Magento would change my url structure.

How do I preserve my current url structure while migrating to the Magento platform so that I do not lose my backlink profile.

[FedeEinhorn]

How about a rewrite rule?

To redirect products, you can use something like this:

OSCommerce URL: http://www.domain.com/your-product-name-p-123.html

Magento url (assuming product names are the same when importing the products): http://www.domain.com/your-product-name.html

.htaccess:

RewriteRule ^(.*)-p-(.*)\.html$ $1.html [L]

However, I would actually use a redirect, you loose some link juice, but it's minimum (with something like this):

RewriteRule ^(.*)-p-(.*)\.html$ $1.html [R=301,L]

Hope that helps!

[WebServiceConsulting.com]

I always thought that if you changed a URL, whatever backlinks that linked to that URL are lost (or re-directed to the new link) but that all juice that was given to that page is lost.

Can anyone elaborate on this topic?

[FedeEinhorn]

If you do a 301 redirect then the juice isn't lost. You lose a bit in the process but not all. Just as it was a regular link in the middle between the link clicked and your Website.

For your viewing pleasure:

watch?v=Filv4pP-1nw

[MoosaHemani]

I will go with the suggestion of Rewrite rule plus if you think that the URL structure on osCommerce is less SEO friendly then Magento then you can the URL structure and use 301 redirect so that link juice didn’t lost plus no user see a 404 page while visiting the website.

Hope this helps!

[Felip3]

How many products does your store have?

Magento have an option call "URL Rewrite Management" (Catalog > URL Rewrite Management)

If you have a few products you can change the URLs manually to match OsCommerce.

If you have  a lot products you should:

1 - Export SKU and URL from OsCommerce to CSV. (ask a PHP developer to make script for you)

2 - Import the spreadsheet to magento  with the columns named: SKU and  url_key

If your site is really big you will need a third part magento extension to import the categories. Magento do not have any native function to import categories.