How to move most "search-engine-friendly" a web page (address) ?

[Matt Adams]

A web page which exists for a couple of years under a certain address

(e.g. http://www.aaa.com/bbb/ccc.html)

is (should be) moved to another location

(e.g. http://www.newloc.com/ddd/eee.html)

Ok. I could replace the ccc.html by another page which forwards the user to
the new page. However what I want to achieve ist that the search engines should
adopt the new address step by step so that the old address becomes needless in a couple
of month.

What should I enter for example in the Meta Tags to instruct the search engine to
change the target address ?

Matt

[Davmagic .Com]

From: Ma********@emai l.com
(Matt*Adams)
A web page which exists for a couple of
years under a certain address
(e.g. http://www.aaa.com/bbb/ccc.html)
is (should be) moved to another location

Use Server Redirect via .htaccess:

http://www.outfront.net/tutorials_02...ess_magic2.htm

Web Design-Magic-Painting-Junking-Games
INFO 2000 For You
http://www.davmagic.com
See how your webpages look on a MSN-TV Browser:
Download it here: http://developer.msntv.com/Tools/msntvvwr.asp

[Spartanicus]

Matt Adams wrote:

A web page which exists for a couple of years under a certain address

(e.g. http://www.aaa.com/bbb/ccc.html)

is (should be) moved to another location

(e.g. http://www.newloc.com/ddd/eee.html)

Ok. I could replace the ccc.html by another page which forwards the user to
the new page. However what I want to achieve ist that the search engines should
adopt the new address step by step so that the old address becomes needless in a couple
of month.

If you cannot use server redirection: delete *all* content from the
page, do not attempt to redirect, just place a text like this:

Page has moved to <a href="http://www.newloc.com/ddd/eee.html">here</a>

After a few months search engines should have dropped the old page for
relevant searches and you can delete the page at the old address.

--
Spartanicus

[Jukka K. Korpela]

Spartanicus <[e-mail] > wrote:

If you cannot use server redirection:
.... then take another look. Usually people just _think_ they cannot use
server redirection, which is the appropriate way, as our dusty FAQ
tells.
delete *all* content from the
page, do not attempt to redirect, just place a text like this:

Page has moved to <a
href="http://www.newloc.com/ddd/eee.html">here</a>
Well, a normal link to the new address is OK, _if_ you really cannot
redirect. But why delete the content? What purpose would it serve?
You could just put the link at the start of the page, prominently.
After a few months search engines should have dropped the old page
for relevant searches and you can delete the page at the old
address.

And what happens to all the links that use it? And there can be search
engines that you don't know of and that work slowly.

_If_ you cannot user server redirection (you probably can), keep the
old page (at least with a link to the new address) as long as possible
if not longer. You might need to give up keeping it if it costs you
real extra money, but there's no reason to remove it just for cleanup.

--
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
Pages about Web authoring: http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/www.html

[Neal]

"Jukka K. Korpela" <jk******@cs.tu t.fi> wrote in message
news:Xn******** *************** ******@193.229. 0.31...

But why delete the content? What purpose would it serve?
You could just put the link at the start of the page, prominently.

In the future, this page won't be thought by spiders to be an
active page on the topic. The time it saves not cataloging this
inactive page might be used to catalog the new location.

After a few months search engines should have dropped the old page for relevant searches and you can delete the page at the old
address.

And what happens to all the links that use it? And there can be

search engines that you don't know of and that work slowly.
Then wait a few more months. :)
_If_ you cannot user server redirection (you probably can), keep the old page (at least with a link to the new address) as long as possible if not longer. You might need to give up keeping it if it costs you real extra money, but there's no reason to remove it just for

cleanup.

I'd leave it up as long as space on the server allowed - which is
another excellent reason to delete the content, in order to save
space.

[Spartanicus]

Jukka K. Korpela wrote:

Well, a normal link to the new address is OK, _if_ you really cannot
redirect. But why delete the content? What purpose would it serve?
You know the answer.
And what happens to all the links that use it?
I prefer to assume that people are intelligent enough to realize that
they'd need to change links to a page they are moving.
And there can be search
engines that you don't know of and that work slowly. _If_ you cannot user server redirection (you probably can)

I like to think that I know more about my account options than you do.

I'm comfortable with pedanticism, patronising doesn't suit you.

--
Spartanicus

[Jukka K. Korpela]

"Neal" <ne**@spamrcn.c om> wrote:

But why delete the content? What purpose would it serve?
You could just put the link at the start of the page, prominently.

In the future, this page won't be thought by spiders to be an
active page on the topic. The time it saves not cataloging this
inactive page might be used to catalog the new location.

Well, that would be achieved by using server redirection - one reason
to use it.

Regarding the inferior solution, deleting the content would cause
trouble to users who find the page. They would need to follow the link,
which might not even work, due to connection problems. If they were
told that the page is now at a new address, with a link to it, and that
the content below is an old copy, they could make an informed decision.

Search engines should learn to give priority to the new page simply
because it is updated more often and links are updated to point to it.

--
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
Pages about Web authoring: http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/www.html

[Jukka K. Korpela]

Spartanicus <[e-mail] > wrote:

And what happens to all the links that use it?

I prefer to assume that people are intelligent enough to realize that
they'd need to change links to a page they are moving.

Maybe intelligent enough, but people who follow a link and enter a page
that says that the page has moved to ... are usually not _able_ to
change the link, because the link is on someone else's page. Besides,
a link may well lie dormant on a page (i.e. nobody follows it) during
the "few months" what you allowed for ("After a few months search
engines should have dropped the old page for relevant searches", which
is somewhat unrealistic - the search engine indexers can be pretty
slow, especially the big ones).

I don't think there are sufficient reasons to _promote_ link rot by
deliberately deleting old pages.

--
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
Pages about Web authoring: http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/www.html

[Spartanicus]

Jukka K. Korpela wrote:

And what happens to all the links that use it?
I prefer to assume that people are intelligent enough to realize that
they'd need to change links to a page they are moving.

Maybe intelligent enough, but people who follow a link and enter a page
that says that the page has moved to ... are usually not _able_ to
change the link, because the link is on someone else's page.

There could indeed be other links to the page about to be moved beyond
the author's control, from other web sites, usenet posts etc. Only the
OP knows if this applies, and if so if he considers this important.
Besides,
a link may well lie dormant on a page (i.e. nobody follows it) during
the "few months" what you allowed for ("After a few months search
engines should have dropped the old page for relevant searches", which
is somewhat unrealistic - the search engine indexers can be pretty
slow, especially the big ones).

Deleting the "page has moved" page is optional. I've done this twice
myself, both times I left the "page has moved" pages up for 2 years.

--
Spartanicus

[MH]

> I'd leave it up as long as space on the server allowed - which is

another excellent reason to delete the content, in order to save
space.

Why not keep track of the number of hits on the page and delete it only if
that number has dropped below a certain level.

-----
MH