301 redirects and google ranking

Marketing
1

Hi All

I’ve just rebuilt a client’s site, and all the URLs are going to change when we go live. He’s concerned about keeping his Google ranking, and might even delay the launch to a less busy time if it’s going to be effected. So:

I’ve been reading up on 301 redirects and google ranking, and can’t seem to find a definite answer. If I’m just redirecting around 20-30 internal pages (sitename.com/about.html to sitename.com/about/ for example) will this cause a temporary drop in ranking? Some people seem to say it won’t effect it at all, some say it can drop you a lot lower for a few weeks before you come back…

Thanks for any help - Frank

2

Ah ok - that makes sense.

Thanks loads for your help!

3

Searches on their name should not be affected at all. If the content is still the same, your client will most likely see a drop of rankings for the inner pages for generic search keywords/phrases, but this will last only until the old URLs get substituted with the new ones.

One other good practice would be to track down external sites that are linking to these pages (the ones you are about to change) and ask them to modify the link so it points to the new URL (always, if this can be done).

4

Yes it definitively will cause a temporary drop in rankings but it should pickup back. Isn’t there a way to keep the same old URLs?

5

Not really - we’ve gone from a very messy static site to a content managed one. The old URLs are a real mess, so we’ll want to be using cleaner, more logical ones eventually. I guess we wait until they can afford the temporary drop.

Just to be clear, is it likely to effect searches on their name? They’re the only company with their name, and their domain name is also their company name. Or will it just hit their ranking for generic searches related to their field?

Thanks for your help!