How do you handle forum redirect notices when moving threads?

[cmeinck]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the thread URL remains the same regardless of what option you select.

As someone who moves threads around quite a bit, I'm wondering what the best practice would be for Google, end users?

How are you handling your forum redirect notices?

 

[Chris D]

A thread URL is the same regardless of what forum it is in.

The redirect is simply there so if someone goes to forum X to look for a thread, they can now clearly see it was moved to forum Y.

It has no effect on anything else, or Google.

 

[cdub]

A thread URL is the same regardless of what forum it is in.

The redirect is simply there so if someone goes to forum X to look for a thread, they can now clearly see it was moved to forum Y.

It has no effect on anything else, or Google.

If I was going to reorganize the threads and nodes on my forum... how would you recommend doing it.

For example I have the following legacy nodes that have been around from the beginning.

• too generic node #1
• too generic node #2
• too generic node #3

It's been working out but it seems like people don't always know the best places to post things....

I want to create/rename the nodes.

Should I create completely new nodes and move the threads? Or should I rename the old nodes, add some new ones, and move the threads? Will the latter confuse users or el Google?

What do you recommend? (for best user and Google results)

 

[Chris D]

I honestly don't think it matters to Google. it probably won't matter much to your users either.

 

[cdub]

Okay. Thanks.

 

[jellytoe]

I have always left 1 day redirects thinking that gives search engines time to re-index. But from what I am reading here there is no such need? Do most people move the thread without a re-direct time?

 

[Chris D]

Redirects are arguably more useful for humans than they are for search engines.

Bear in mind when you move a thread, its URL doesn't change, and generally in terms of indexing a URL, all Google cares about is the URL and its content. With that in mind, moving a thread should affect neither of those things, and search engines will be regularly crawling your site anyway.

 

[cdub]

How does renaming categories affect things?

 

[Paul B]

It won't have any effect in general as categories are typically only used for anchors and the category ID doesn't change, even if the title does.