Over time, site pages get links from other sites, gaining value as they age and get more and more links. When you’re redesigning a site, it’s tempting to redo the entire site structure, moving pages and changing their URLs, which means you lose all those links which have taken so long to collect.
Tip: Don’t touch that URL!
As “Natural-Born Search Killers” points out:
Links and other “off-the-page†factors are now the most crucial element in how search engines retrieve their results. Preservation of existing links alone is a strong enough reason to maintain URL equity and natural search engine presence.
Yes, you can do redirects, but sometimes (often) they don’t work as they should, and pages’ hard-won link equity is lost.
I’m currently developing a new site for some of my products, and it’s reminded me of how important page URLs are. It means that I’m thinking hard about site structure, folder names, navigation, URLs and what it will mean if I decide to redesign the site in the future.
Technorati Tags: SEO, links, link equity, search engine optimization, site design
Angela Booth, top copywriter, author and writing teacher.
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