301 a large site in ASP

[Molly]

Hi this is the first time I that I have done anything like this before but we are rebuilding a large website and we want to make sure it doens't lose it good ranking within the search engines. So we were thinking of using 301 to tell google where the pages have moved to.

The problem is I'm not really sure where to start to impliment something this. We have a website that has 26,200 indexed pages, so I need to come up with somekind of solution that would work across the board.

Has anyone ever done something like this? Where would I start? Is there any software built on the market that might help?

Any help appericated.

[Mike]

There are a couple of ways to accomplish this, it just depends how much time and work you can put into it. In terms of software, I have not seen any that specifically builds 301 redirects. It would also be a good idea to check with your hosting provider, as they can sometimes run scripts that can automatically do this for you.

ASP 301 Redirects:

I don't use an MS server, but this site explains it pretty well. However, it will require that you place the code described in the tutorial on all the pages, in place of the old data. With 26k+ pages, it will take forever.

http://www.seoconsultants.com/tips/asp/301.asp (http://www.seoconsultants.com/tips/asp/301.asp)

Alt Methods (What I would do):

On a site as large as yours, I assume that the bots come several times a day. Most likely in the hundreds or more. With that being said, google will find the new urls no matter what. As long as they are linked from somewhere on the site.

In this case, while redirects will help guide the bots to the right place, it doesn't even matter because they will have to re-index the new urls regardless. With that being said, a 404 custom error page will accomplish the same in a fraction of the time.

In terms of loss in rankings, from my experience, it will probably not affect you very much.

I would create a directory with all the articles listed on it, and insert that data into a custom error page. 404, to be exact. That way, when the search engines (or visitors) come looking for the already indexed pages, they will find the 404 error page and right underneath have the all the new urls to re-index (or some direction as to where they can find the page they are looking for).

This will save you time and on the same, will accomplish what you need. I have done this for a large media site, that we run, and it has worked out great. Also, if you have adsense and banners running on these pages, put that on the 404 redirect pages so that you don't loose revenue. Hope it works out.