301/302 Redirect Question

[Mutt]

I'm overhauling an old TGP site, new CMS/script, same content, which means all the current URL's on this site that are in the search engines will be replaced with new URL's - from an SEO perspective what's the best way of handling this to minimize SEO losses?

thanks

[Tempest]

I typically end up using something like this.

RedirectMatch permanent ^/somepath/(.+) http://www.domain.com/newpath/$1

[Barry-xlovecam]

Originally Posted by Tempest

I typically end up using something like this.

RedirectMatch permanent ^/somepath/(.+) http://www.domain.com/newpath/$1

+1

[AzteK]

Originally Posted by Tempest

I typically end up using something like this.

RedirectMatch permanent ^/somepath/(.+) http://www.domain.com/newpath/$1

you don't need?

redirectMatch 301 ^/somepath/(.+) http://www.domain.com/newpath/$1

[raymor]

seomoz says to use a 301 permanent, not a 302 temporary:

http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/redirection

That's handy because as I understand it, yours really is a permanent change and in general it's best to actually follow that standards, for various reasons.

[Mutt]

Originally Posted by Tempest

I typically end up using something like this.

RedirectMatch permanent ^/somepath/(.+) http://www.domain.com/newpath/$1

not to sound dumber than I am but what goes in where it says '/somepath/' ?

i'm using the same domain, all old gallery URL's will be gone, so want all the old gallery URL's that are in search engines to just redirect to the main page of the domain.

[stocktrader23]

Originally Posted by Mutt

not to sound dumber than I am but what goes in where it says '/somepath/' ?

i'm using the same domain, all old gallery URL's will be gone, so want all the old gallery URL's that are in search engines to just redirect to the main page of the domain.

Well that one is easy but you really don't want to do that if you are trying to keep your SE listings. They should redirect to the new url for the old content.

[Mutt]

Originally Posted by Tempest

I typically end up using something like this.

RedirectMatch permanent ^/somepath/(.+) http://www.domain.com/newpath/$1

RedirectMatch 301 /seo/(.*) http://www.seomoz.org/$1

what's the '^' for in yours?

[Tempest]

Originally Posted by Mutt

not to sound dumber than I am but what goes in where it says '/somepath/' ?

RedirectMatch permanent ^/?galleries/(.+) http://www.domain.com/newgalleries/$1

OR something like this

RedirectMatch permanent ^/?galleries/gal01.html http://www.domain.com/newgalleries/gal01/
RedirectMatch permanent ^/?galleries/gal02.html http://www.domain.com/newgalleries/gal02/

Originally Posted by Mutt

i'm using the same domain, all old gallery URL's will be gone, so want all the old gallery URL's that are in search engines to just redirect to the main page of the domain.

Eh? That's not what you asked for.. So are the pages still going to exist or are they gone for good? If you just want to redirect to the main page, I'd just do it as a 404. Maybe you could do a redirect to pass on any link juice that were going to the galleries, might be worth it.. On the other hand you might also transfer the anchor text which might not be good for the main page.. Once the SEs figure out that those pages no longer exist, they might just discount all those links anyway. IMO it would be better to just 404 them if you're just wanting to get rid of them.

[Tempest]

Originally Posted by Mutt

RedirectMatch 301 /seo/(.*) http://www.seomoz.org/$1

what's the '^' for in yours?

^ = "match at the start" i.e. match if the requested page/page starts with (in this case) "/"

Depending on your server setup, the paths/pages might or might not start with the "/"

So I usually do it like this (which I missed in my first post)

RedirectMatch permanent ^/?galleries/.........

The ? means that the "/" may or may not be there.

[Mutt]

Originally Posted by Tempest

RedirectMatch permanent ^/?galleries/(.+) http://www.domain.com/newgalleries/$1

OR something like this

RedirectMatch permanent ^/?galleries/gal01.html http://www.domain.com/newgalleries/gal01/
RedirectMatch permanent ^/?galleries/gal02.html http://www.domain.com/newgalleries/gal02/

Eh? That's not what you asked for.. So are the pages still going to exist or are they gone for good? If you just want to redirect to the main page, I'd just do it as a 404. Maybe you could do a redirect to pass on any link juice that were going to the galleries, might be worth it.. On the other hand you might also transfer the anchor text which might not be good for the main page.. Once the SEs figure out that those pages no longer exist, they might just discount all those links anyway. IMO it would be better to just 404 them if you're just wanting to get rid of them.

they will be gone for good on the www.domain.com - what i was thinking is could i change my DNS so that what's on www.domain.com now appears on old.domain.com and i install my new CMS on www.domain.com - redirect all the old galleries with 301 to old.domain.com ?

[Tempest]

Originally Posted by Mutt

they will be gone for good on the www.domain.com - what i was thinking is could i change my DNS so that what's on www.domain.com now appears on old.domain.com and i install my new CMS on www.domain.com - redirect all the old galleries with 301 to old.domain.com ?

IMO you're over thinking this... If a page(gallery) is being moved to a new location, then do a redirect... If it's being blown away for good, let it 404 and have your 404 go to the index page or some landing page... I wouldn't redirect to the main page... If you really want to do a redirect, do it to some landing page instead so you could then "filter" the traffic to some other location on your site.

[woj]

use 301, and I would get a professional to set it up, one wrong character in the redirect code and it could completely destroy your search engine rankings...

hit me up if you need a hand with it....