Is It Advisable To Change Your URL Structure?
Its always been misunderstood among several webmasters, many of them tend to read one or two article in some SEO blog or forums where people tend to advice them to change their url structure to something that is more search engine friendly. I do not deny the fact that altering your url structure slightly to reap some benefits out of it is a bad idea but you have to know that there are certain issues involved when you change your url structure.
1. 404 Page Not Found Issue:
When you change the structure of the urls, its highly likely that already indexed pages of your site would have your old url attached to it and when people and search bots crawl for updates on the same url, its highly likely that it would end up finding 404 and page not found pages, search engines really don’t like a site which has too many 404 pages, its a sign to search engines that your site is not stable.
2. Sudden Drop In SERPS:
If you have changed the url structure and you are not properly redirecting your old url to new ones then you might start to experience sudden drop in your SERPS and your traffic getting reduced considerably every day.
With the two serious issues in place with changing your url structure its always advisable that you stick with one url structure from the very beginning of your site.
If you hold a site that’s been there for a while then do not change your urls for SEO, I would advice you to stick to your old structure.
Its not always a good practice to change your urls and redirect them as it involves lot of time that need to be spent on establishing 301 redirect which could be spent on other tasks that could very well benefit you double or triple times more than just changing your urls as you should know time equals money.
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Filed Under: SEO Tips
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I think it is not good to change the URL. It would not be a good sign for your site. Search engine would not like this thing.
Hi Singh,
That’s right its not advisable to change your url structure, I must say its always best to figure out a best url structure for your site when you launch it and stick with it.