htaccess hell - brightonseo 2016
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@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
.htaccess Hell Managing a Migration When There’s
No Easy Answer
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
A site migration Possibly the most important moment in a
website’s life-cycle
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
A site migration Possibly the most important moment in a
website’s life-cycle
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Done well, a new site can launch without hitch
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Done badly, all your hard work will go down the
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
On small sites this can be really easy
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
On small sites this can be really easyOn large sites... ?
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
That doesn’t mean you can just shrug it off
(don’t be lazy)
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
It’s make or break for your new website
(I really mean it, don’t be lazy)
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
In this presentation I’ll show you
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
How to scope the size of the redirect challenge
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
How to prioritise redirects
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Tactics to help map them(less painfully - at least)
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
“Best-case” matching when there’s no exact
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Testing redirects pre & post launch
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Keeping organised
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Scoping the size of the redirect trouble
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
1) Crawl your website
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
1) Crawl your website
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
2) Crawl any sitemaps
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
3) Export landing page URLs from GA
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
If the 5,000 row limit is too much of a pain - try http://bit.ly/analytics-edge
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
4) Extract URLs from logs
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
4) Extract URLs from logs
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Or maybe you can be adventurous and use command line
This resource rocks, thanks Oliver Mason!-> http://bit.ly/log-command-line
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
5) Scrape Google(but be nice)
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
“But wait, this sounds a right faff!”
(I thought I told you not to be lazy)
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Prioritising redirects
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
1) Common-sense - top level pages
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
2) Top-ranking pages
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
3) Top trafficked pages
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
4) Most crawled pages (from log files)
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
5) … and if possible everything else
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Mapping redirects
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
1) Directory rewrites
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
In .htaccess for example:
RewriteRule ^old-blog/(.*)$ /new-blog/$1 [R=301,NC,L]
www.domain.com/old-blog/best-post-evar301s to
www.domain.com/new-blog/best-post-evar
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Some more handy .htaccess rules?
http://bit.ly/aleyda-htaccess
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
That’s the easy part over and done with!
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
2) Old-to-new post/ product matching
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Can be done in many different ways - depends on commonalities:- Post/Product ID
- Post/Product Name- Post/Product Title- URL Key Matching
etc...
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
For example:
http://bit.ly/ecom-redirect-drive
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Make friends with a developer
(Seriously - buy them a drink and everything!)
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
But that’s not a get out of jail free card!
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
3) Manually match them
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
This is up to you to do the hard work…
Filters are your friend too
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Filter your URLs, look for:
- Specific keywords- Directories- Parameters
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
“Best case” matching
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
1) Don’t just over-redirect to the homepage or top-level
categories
(This leads into soft 404s!)
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Don’t just take my word for it Ask Glenn Gabe
http://bit.ly/soft-404s
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
2) Match to the closest available example
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
3) If there’s no suitable alternative, don’t be afraid to
let it drop
(if it’s important and there’s no alternative, you’re doing it wrong!)
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Redirect implementation?
Assuming that you’re using apache - http://bit.ly/htaccess-for-seos
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Redirect testing
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
1) Modify redirects to “work” on staging/dev
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Change the hostname to dev/staging
(change back before launch though!)
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
2) Crawl, crawl & crawl again!
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Change host on your old list of redirects & crawl
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Pro tip:
Just because there’s a 301 response, doesn’t mean it’s the right destination!
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
3) Test again after launch
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Make sure nothing breaks after!
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Keeping organised
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
1) Excel/google docs is your friend
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
2) Include 301 mapping into your sitemap - start early!
http://bit.ly/sitemap-redirect-template
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
3) Learn to Vlookup!
http://bit.ly/vlookup-beginners
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
4) Save often, split your workbook if things get too
heavy
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
To recap...
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
It takes time but it’s worth it!
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Properly scope the size of the problem
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Prioritise - more is better, but it has to stop somewhere
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Map redirects intelligently - pattern or directory match where you can
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Make friends with a developer!
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Test, test & test again
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Download this, it’ll helphttp://bit.ly/sitemap-redirect-template
@chrisgreen87@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO2nd September 2016
Thank you.@chrisgreen87
http://bit.ly/htaccess-hell
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