301 Redirect Timing Questions

[WorldWideWebLabs]

Hey all,

Quick question on 301 redirects and the timing of creating them when transitioning from an old site to a new site.

Does the timing matter? Can redirects interfere with DNS propigation (which seemed to happen to us when we

did redirects minutes after redirecting someone's DNS A record to now point to the new site)

And lastly, how long AFTER a new site launch can one still submit redirects and not lose the google juice?

All the best,

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

As soon as your new site goes live, those old site URLs need to immediately redirect. The reason being, if crawlers crawl your old URLs and see that those pages are now 404ing, they have no indication that there is a new site URL.

Here is a resource from Google.

Also, do not forget to update your sitemap, upload it to Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools, note a change of address (if necessary), and also change any and all internal links.

You may also want to conduct a backlink audit - reach out to websites with links you want to keep so they can change them if need to be and also to reach out to websites for links you wish to remove.

Hope this helps! Good luck!