How To Ensure Success When You Redesign Your Wesite URL Structure

Recently here at CKMG, we've added to our arsenal of abilities the following: Massive Site Overhaul and Complete Restructuring of URLs. And by massive, we're talking about a website that is no less than 3,000 pages. How does one make sure to deliver on the promised and necessary improvements to a website, while maintaining the all-important Page Rank that the current iteration of the site has amassed? A troubling question, on some level -- but another terrific challenge for the team at CKMG.

Some Things To Consider When Changing URL Structure

I think the number one consideration when changing around a site's URL structure really doesn't shift too much from a major point of consideration for all web development practices -- and that's logic. Does what you are doing make sense? For instance, in the project mentioned above, the website had grown and grown with the addition of hundreds of pieces of unique SEO content over a period of months. As the website moved into a period of greater maturity, the need arose for a tighter, more logical structuring of the URLs.

Specifically, there were a number of articles on the site, all of which seemed to stem directly off of the root URL of the site. As it became more obvious how to properly and logically organize the information on the site into more clear compartments, the use of sub-categories in the URL structure became mandatory.

Think about it like this -- if you merely collected bills for months on end, and then one day ended up with a file cabinet full of manilla folders, you'd get confused. Sure, they are all bill folders, and that's all that is in the file cabinet, but good luck trying to get to the exact folder in any short amount of time. So you add some extra hanging folders and label those -- maybe you add one for "Utility Bills" and another for "Credit Card Bills" -- you sub-categorize. This makes finding things that much easier, and shortens your bill-paying time. In a word, you add more logic.

The Key To URL Structure Is Organization 

The project we are currently around the corner from concluding is really quite similar -- we added subcategories. This logic reads well with the search engine spiders, and makes more sense to the site users. And that is always the goal. Beyond that, when considering how to maintain PageRank -- the number one goal is always proper organization. Keep all of your old site version URLs in a logical order, gathered into a single column in a spreadsheet and then map out against that column the new site URL structure, so that every single old page has a corresponding new page that makes more sense. And make sure you have someone fastidious with details on top of the project! 

--Matty Byloos