You need a permanant 301 redirect - not temporary.

this has the effect of telling spiders the old page is dead so they learn to drop it.

it also benefits people as it takes them direct to the new page - if they have bookmarks etc, covers backlinks too

also have a 404 to mop up any thing you forget.

I dont bother with any redirects these days as Google picks up changes very very quickly now. redirects were designed for the days when google could take many months to reindex your site so they were vital in keeping your traffic going but now G takes a few weeks if that so they are not worth the bother. Added to that is the fact that they are potentially dangerous then I would not waste my time.

IIRC the new Interspire has then automatically built in - my be wrong but BigCommerce does so Im expecting something.:eek:

Mark H said:

I was just about to buy ISC Starter to have a play with it. Should I wait for 5.5 or does the software update automatically (and for free :))?

If you haven't done so already, Mal is (kindly) offering a discount code on his site. You get 12 months maintenance included in the price, which gives you all upgrades while the maintenance contract is current. The software doesn't upgrade manually - you do it, when you want, with far greater control over what is written over than in A******.

I dont bother with any redirects these days as Google picks up changes very very quickly now. redirects were designed for the days when google could take many months to reindex your site so they were vital in keeping your traffic going but now G takes a few weeks if that so they are not worth the bother. Added to that is the fact that they are potentially dangerous then I would not waste my time.

Surely its not all just about google...

what about customers who bookmark you and other websites that link to you

if you dont redirect (301) they end up on your 404?

I must admit I dont 301 all pages I change, I do let 404 pick them up, but for pages with alot of traffic and backlinks I do.

other websites that link to you

Most will link to your home pages so thats not a problem

pinbrook said:

You need a permanant 301 redirect - not temporary.

Thanks Jo

sorry i should have mentioned, i made these permanant redirects.

interesting comment Mal so you think SE's dont need this so much these days? as is aid i uploaded a new sitemap and yahoo one aswell so they will have the new url's to follow

im giving it a few days then going to purchase the standard edition for a new site and see how we get with it.

Mal so you think SE's dont need this so much these days

Not really. If you are converting to new software the urls will always change so you just factor that into your overall plan. Some sites I converted before xmas to allow for this and others are being done now in the quiet time

Thanks Jo

sorry i should have mentioned, i made these permanant redirects.

yes but you still can't spell permanent .. :o I thought you were learning your spellings with your son?

interesting comment Mal so you think SE's dont need this so much these days?

I agree with Mal here, where we slightly disagree is the need to cover where people bookmark your site, links from other websites, etc

I have loads of bookmarks from deep pages within websites, I also see lots of website doing deeplinkbacks not just home page links.

If you have hundreds of pages to redirect I'd be inclined to pick out the pages with most traffic, if you need to set yourself a time limit.

I periodically tidy up my htaccess and remove old 301s just to keep it tidy and readable.

FTR the new URLs for pinbrook are being picked up this week, i put the new site live on the 7th Jan. If you search "pinbrook" you will see a site in transit as it were. The new index page is indexed but not the sub pages yet, although we have a separate listing for the control panel login page. There are 301's in place for the important pages ie prices/plans. No xml or sitemap though.

Can someone remind me where the description is coming from - as its not from the site, is it open directory or something?

The site hasn't gone live yet and is hosted on another site for testing purposes, but it is nearly ready. I've checked the links and most of the links backs are to the home page (probably about 99% of them). Does this change your view Mal?

Yes - do it if that's the big picture. Sounds exactly like the situation I had with parklife ie stock changing as well so it made no difference