This 3 part blog series from PURE will take a look at that often make or break transition moment for many websites moving from the old and into the new. This first installment will take a look at URL structures; what they are and why changing them without taking the correct steps can cause users issues as well as an SEO catastrophe.

Changing the URL structure of your website without paying close attention to your new structure and the necessary redirects is a sure fire way to destroy all your organic search traffic and possibly lose your job and/ or business. There are many reasons why you may feel a change is necessary, including;

1. The previous structure was dynamic resulting in lots of duplicate content issues.
2. You have decided to splash the cash on a brand spanking new website design and the URL structure is going to change as a result of the new layout.
3. SEO Masochism is your ‘thing’.

SEO issues when changing a websites URL structure

In SEO we spend a lot of time, effort and money making changes to our websites to help them rank better in the search engines. When we create a new webpage full of lovely, wholesome and engaging content we assign it a URL:

www.acme.com/content/blog/seo-friendly-unique-and-engaging-content

Once the Google spider has rocked by our webpage gets indexed in their search engine – HOORAY! As a result of this users can find our content through Google and if it makes them smile, laugh or cry they may even decide to share it with an audience on another website. As a result of these incoming links our content gains authority on the search engines and it appears more frequently in internet user’s related search queries and the webpage therefore gains us more traffic – SUCCESS!

Now what happens if I suddenly take out that /content/ section of the website structure? Well our blog would have moved address to this address:

www.acme.com/blog/seo-friendly-unique-and-engaging-content

Unless we have made the necessary redirects two things are going to happen:

1. People following your links from the search engines and other websites will not find the content they were hoping to navigate too. They will instead be met by a nasty 404 error page – this will not do your engagement statistics any favors.
2. Search engines will notice that your page is not where it should be because their spiders will report crawl errors. Search engines are aware that errors their spiders are experiencing will be experienced by users and give you a big black mark against your website. A resultant fall in search engine results rankings is inevitable.

Crucially any links that your readership built to the previous address will also be lost and as a result any authority the content had built-up will essentially get wiped to zero.

So there you have it, changing your URL structure or even the URL of any indexed page without taking the correct steps is a terrible idea. To learn how to change a URL structure the right way be sure to come back next week and read Part 2 Changing URL Structures: Creating Permanent Redirects to Avoid SEO Suicide.

Who are PURE? PURE SEO Services are based in Manchester. We are a team of expert organic SEO specialists who provide affordable, last SEO results that provide ever increasing ROI’s for our clients. For more information on our services visit: SEO Manchester.