Why You Should Perform URL Changes
The biggest benefit of changing your URLs is that it helps Google discover, index, and ultimately rank your new content. It means that if you change any URLs on your existing site (or move pages around to other directories), Google will find those changes. If you don’t make these changes, it could take months for the new URLs to appear in our search results.
URL Changes Are No Longer A Ranking Signal:
URL changes were once an SEO ranking signal, but Google has stated that they no longer use this as a ranking factor. But there are many other ways to get your high business rankings. San Jose SEO experts give the best strategies for researching, planning, and executing a marketing plan that will work for businesses nationwide. That does not mean that you no longer need to worry about the ranking signals, though! If someone links to your old URL and people see those links in the search results, it will now count as a “do follow” link rather than a “no follow,” which is good news for your site’s search engine rankings. It is important to track how many of these following links are pointing to each URL. Again, if the new version of a page gets fewer do-follow backlinks, it can hurt its search engine rankings because it will look like the page isn’t “popular” or is no longer updated.
Google May Trust The New URL More Than The Old One:
Even though Google says they do not use it as a ranking signal anymore, you have to remember that websites are being recrawled all the time, so there is always a chance that Google might trust the new URL more than the old one. If this happens, your rankings may jump because your new version of a page got indexed before anyone could update links pointing to it. It will be considered good SEO practice by Search engines if they think this is happening, but what if someone decides to link to both URLs? It is just something for web admins to worry about when changing or updating a page’s URL.
Google Does Not Like It When You Change Your Content:
Even though changing your content does not affect SEO rankings, it can hurt them by causing duplicate content issues. Webmasters need to know the most important thing after making changes or updating their pages, especially if they use aggressive SEO techniques, including keyword-specific anchor text links. Using exact match anchor text to link back to your new page would cause problems with both versions of the page showing up in the search engine results at the same time. Also, if people click on these links and see two different versions of your site, they will become confused and might even leave and go somewhere else for their needs.
Google Will Probably See The New URL As A Duplicate If You Try To Hide It:
If you use a 301 redirect from your old pages to new ones, it will help with the duplicate content issues, but Google will continue to see these as two copies of the same page unless you can do something about that. You should consider implementing a canonical tag or meta robots no index if you want to keep a tighter hold on what is indexed and what isn’t. It is necessary if you have scraped content on your site because these tags will stop search engines from indexing it.
Make Sure People Do Not End Up On The Wrong Version Of Your Site:
The most important thing for webmasters to remember after making any changes or updates to their website’s pages is to make sure people do not end up on the wrong page. If someone clicks on a link and ends up somewhere else, you will lose visitors, so it is important to redirect them back or forward if this happens. You can also use Google Analytics code so webmasters will know where traffic is coming from and will be able to take the necessary steps to resolve any problems quickly.
It Is Never A Bad Idea To Watch For Redirect Chains:
If you have multiple redirects going from one version of your page to another, it would be a good idea for webmasters to watch for “redirect chains.” These happen when several 301 or 302 redirects go from one page or URL to another. It can happen when particular pages get scraped or copied by other sites, which is how you end up with multiple versions of the same thing indexed in Google. You do not want to leave these redirects in place because they make it hard for search engines to understand what your page is really about and will continue to offer users other types of pages even though you have taken steps to fix this problem.
Use Social Media To Your Advantage:
Finally, webmasters need to understand that social media can be a potent tool in dealing with any problems or changes on their websites. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ all give people a way to contact you when something goes wrong so use them! If someone clicks on a link and ends up on the wrong version of your site, talk about it on social media and tell people what is happening. Also, this will help you find out if any unintentional redirects are happening so you can get rid of them quickly. Using these tools for communication purposes will help webmasters fix any URL changes or other issues with their website.
Wrapping Up!
Webmasters need to remember that changing or updating their pages can cause duplicate content issues. They also need to be aware that they should pay attention to redirect chains and watch for them when these problems occur. Lastly, using social media is a good way of communicating with people, so webmasters will know if there are any unintentional redirects to take steps to fix them.
