Hey all,

I'm in the middle of redesigning my site with templates using Dreamweaver so I can make changes more easily.  I'm also utilizing much more css to streamline the code.

I'm trying to keep all the file names the same and the basic structure of the site the same so I don't have to worry about any incoming links not having a landing page.  I plan on keeping the page names and all the meta tags the same or very similar.

Is there anything I have to worry about as far as my rankings which have been climbing nicely over the last 6 months?  The spiders know how to parse templates by now don't they?

I'm also not sure how to deal with items that we discontinue.  Sometimes they get linked to and when I get rid of a particular item I end up with a 404 which isn't a good way to greet a new visitor.  My solution at this point has been to make a custom 404 page saying the item isn't available anymore and offer menus and a search box to continue.

thx.

PeterP

Peter!!! My Man!!! Look at that... you have been a member for a while and under 100 posts.... I need U man - http://forums.site-reference.com/topic/ … t-to-Join/

... Anyway, these sound like SEO questions no? I looked at the forum and got lost . almost left.

If you are keeping all of the page names the same (the important ones at least) then you should be grooovy. Is any of the content or anything changing greatly outside of the actual site design?

Personally, for discontinued items, I would 301 redirect the pages back to the closest main category.  SOme folks redirect to the home page, but I figure link juice passing to the tighter area of a parent category is the way to go....

Gypsy,

Sorry about the light posting man but you gotta get a taste of my life the last year.

Running a business with the wife where I got the titles of:

Webmaster
bookkeeper
advertising manager
photographer - retoucher
business plan writer
wife calmer downer.

This is after my 9-5 job of photo retoucher for a magazine company.  Gotta have that insurance and 401k man!
Of course it's not all drudgery, one of the magazines I work on is King Magazine!

Add to that, a 1yr old adopted child from Guatemala arriving in April who just started walking.

My extra time is quite limited.  I used to have time at work to peruse and post replies more often but that has changed with the addition of new magazines.

I usually consult here when I am in need of some help I just can't find answers to on my own, you guys have been an incredible help to us.  And I DO try to post a reply or two when I post a query so it's not all gimme gimme.

I shall try harder tho, who needs sleep?

Thanks for the help.

Pp

SEs don't care about templates - remember that all they see is the source code of your final pages

Try to keep your template lean (risk of duped content)

As for your discontinued lines - just don't link to them. Are you running your site from a database? if so make sure you have an active field and select by that

I remove links once an item is gone,  but there are blogs or magazines that will pick up items we are carrying and write about them and link to the page.  When the item sells out and I take the page down there is an incoming link still out there.

No databases, everything I do is created as we need it.

PeterP wrote:

I remove links once an item is gone,  but there are blogs or magazines that will pick up items we are carrying and write about them and link to the page.  When the item sells out and I take the page down there is an incoming link still out there.

No databases, everything I do is created as we need it.

Yeah, just a 404 page then - make sure the header sent is actually 404 and not 200 with an error page as microsoft servers like to do

PeterP wrote:

I remove links once an item is gone,  but there are blogs or magazines that will pick up items we are carrying and write about them and link to the page.  When the item sells out and I take the page down there is an incoming link still out there.

No databases, everything I do is created as we need it.

No worries on posting. We're just lokng from info from as many sources as possible

Like I said, 301 redirect the dead pages to the closest patent category page... that'll pass the link love to the most relevant area ..Dats what I would do at least

You may or may not find the following useful, but thought I would chime in since I'm new here. 

If you page extensions are named .php this technique will work - if they're not - sorry mate - it won't work but you could possibly use it in the future.  You can have your pages named .php and not have any php on them.  That means you can take vanilla html or xhtml pages and name them .php with no issues.  They still work.  it does however allow you additional flexibility of later adding a small include or piece of php without issue. 

Awhile back I read an article that detailed how having a php forwarder on a page for whatever reason was boosting page ranks.  This may not be the case any longer - but it did seem to have a remarkable impact on the pages in question.  I used the technique and although I didn't notice a jump in rank - it certainly wasn't decreased.  I think if I was selling products I would certainly give this a shot and monitor it for effectiveness.  I agree that a forwarder is better than a 404 or even a custom 404. :-)

Sounds like you have a full life! 

Best Regards, -7