Redirect or let Google reindex?

[CTXMedia]

I'm migrating from IP.Board to XF at the weekend and wondered whether I should use the redirect scripts Kier has provided (IP.Board > XF) or whether to let Google simply re-index everything from scratch?

I currently have lots of excludes in my robots.txt file and lots of errors in the crawler reports in Webmaster Tools (hundreds of thousands of the little tykes!!) - so I wondered if it would be better to simply let Google "rediscover" my site?

Or do the 301's automatically (and quickly) re-link the content to the new XF style URL and lessen the impact of the move/re-crawl?

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[TheBigK]

I bet 301's is the way to go.

 

[HannahP]

do the 301's automatically (and quickly) re-link the content to the new XF style URL and lessen the impact of the move/re-crawl?

301 is a permanent redirect, so theoretically (and usually, in practice), Google applies any link juice from the old URL to the new URL that you redirect to (and strikes the old URL from its index).

In other words, a 301 should not have a negative impact on your search result ranking in Google.

 

[robdog]

You definitely want to 301 redirect.