URL structure changed after website upgrade, can I recover my links?

Essien

So I recently upgraded a site from static HTML to WordPress and with it the URLs have changed - What was /about.html is now simply /about.

The site almost immediately tumbled in the rankings and I'm attributing this to the fact that some links that were directed at sub pages are now broken - There is one monsterous link in particular that I would desperately love to recover if possible.

Since I noticed the drop I've set up 301's from the old pages to the new ones, reported broken links as fixed in WMT and submitted sitemaps.

Is this going to get me anywhere? Is there anything else I can do?

blue4ever

It should be your permalinks that are dictating your URL's (or its your .htaccess file)

But its easily altered.

When you changed the site, the URLs 'didn't exist' - you might have seen a large amount of 404's in GWT

It may need an edit in the .htaccess department but lets try this first.

Go to: Settings>Permalinks.

In the permalink you have to pick a custom structure you have to add a bit:

Lets say your custom permalink is %postname% (or %postname%/ - note the forward slash! - please note which one it is)

You can change it to %postname%.html

Now - quick Vital trick:

To test that click "save changes" call that tab the 'admin tab'

Now in another tab or indeed browser open your site and hit a subpage - a) does the page work, b) is the .html there

If its broken or not adding the .html go to the 'admin tab' remove the .html and return the custom permalink to its original

If you want, pm me with a URL and I'll take a peek and see.

C

Vroom Digital

Hi Essien, if you set up the redirects that should be enough although it can take a while for search engines to pick up on them


Dave

TsuDhoNimh

Essien wrote: »

The site almost immediately tumbled in the rankings and I'm attributing this to the fact that some links that were directed at sub pages are now broken

That will have been a major part of it, but even if you had 301'd those pages right from the start (so no boken pages) you'd have noticed a dramatic short term impact. It's part and parcel of changing the URL structure of a site, it's something that's going to happen.

It will take the search engines a number of visits (and how long between visit will depend on how authoritative your site is/was) to clear up all the changes that occurred and get a handle on your new URLs and your new internal linking. While all that is happening, your rankings will be extremely dynamic. The overall domain authority of your site will fall horribly, due to lost pages and non picked up new ones, so rankings across the board will suffer.

Essien wrote: »

There is one monsterous link in particular that I would desperately love to recover if possible.

Since I noticed the drop I've set up 301's from the old pages to the new ones, reported broken links as fixed in WMT and submitted sitemaps.

If you've 301'd the old pages to the new, that's a good step to ensure you minimise the losses. If you've an extremely valuable link you'd like to retain, you should consider your options there. If you think the site in question would update the URL to point at your new page, that'd be the perfect scenario. If not, depending on how valuable you feel the link is, you might consider leaving this content sitting on the old URL (you can place it at the new URL too, to keep with your standard layout, and add a canonical tag referencing the old URL) to gain the full benefits. If you end up 301'ing it to the new URL you'll lose some of the value in the process.

Have the rankings settled out now that the search engines have picked up on the restructuring?
The biggest problem in this area occurs when things go a little 'too smoothly'. If you make the change, change all your internal navigation links, update your sitemaps and have everything pointing at your new URLs before Google have an opportunity to recrawl the old URLs and pick up on the 301s, it can make the process slow and painful. Google have the old URLs in the index and will, eventually, recrawl them... but if they're taking their time about it it's worth considering giving them a helpful hand to do so (e.g. leaving your navigational links pointing at now outdated URLs that give 301s, just so the 301s can be picked up).