Relaunching a site is often cause for celebration — you get to debut a fresh new design, plus (hopefully) give your users a better experience through improved navigation and functionality.
Common to many relaunches is the changing of URLs. Perhaps directory structures changed, or you transitioned from using underscores between words to Google's preferred dashes. What used to be:
www.mysite.com/attractions/outdoor/mini_golf.html
May now be:
www.mysite.com/outdoor-attractions/mini-golf/
So what happens when the new site launches and a user who tries to find something via a search engine ends up on an old URL?
The dreaded 404 Not Found error.
Even if your 404 page is friendly and suggests checking out the sitemap or exploring the redesigned site to locate the correct content, Google and other search engines aren't a fan of that strategy. So then what happens to any of the positive SEO your old site amassed over the years?
The old saying is true — if you don't use it, you lose it.
Even submitting updated site maps via Google Webmaster Tools won't necessarily help as the new URLs aren't processed right away, and in the time between the new site launch and re-indexing the damage can already be done.
Thankfully there's a fairly simple way to ensure that launching a brand-new kickass site doesn't permanently negate your rankings:
301 Permanent Redirects.
There's a variety of methods in which to set this up (depending on your server/site configuration) but the concept is simple: for as many important old URLs you had on the original site, create a redirect listing that points to the new location. The 301 server code informs search engines that this move is permanent, allowing the SEO you've built up to transfer over to the new pages. Voila!
Plus at any time are you deleting pages or changing their URLs? The same principle applies.
-Jeff
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