There is probably no simple answer to this, but I'd like to know the possibilities.
We have a few websites that are basically serving static .html pages. All these site are indexed by the major search engines, so the urls are here to stay (right? --> you cannot change the index of for example google?)
So if we remake the site with umbraco/asp.net, we will have different links. Even if we keep the file and foldernames the same, we would have the .aspx extension differing from .html :(
I was thinking that if we could work out a urlrewrite rule that basically replaces the .html extension with .aspx ... we would still be able to serve the old/indexed links...
I understood and tested that IIS7 can also redirect directly (301-permanent) from the .html page to whatever you want it to redirect to.
This implies 2 things: Server access or hosting provider support and the old .html files so that you can apply the redirect to them.
@Petr: Might be an idea as well, saves the fact that you actually need the .html files on the server but still needs hosting provider involvement (which is hardly avoidable of course). thanks.
I once made a webapplication that captured (via 404) the old URL's and 301 redirected them to the new URL's but you have to find a way to do this automated. Which is probably kind of hard if the html files are not dynamic. You probably have to map them to the new URL's manually. Because you can't really do an automated translation. This might be quite some work.
But it is a good thing to think about this because often people totally forget about this when launching a new website.
I just learned that webhost4life supports a redirect module which is user configurable (http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/nUrlRewriter/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=1978)
I think I might go this route. (It's a 20 bucks fee to enable it, but ok ... better than spending a few days creating my own solution and still to find out that I need them to change something on the server, which probably still sets us back a few dollars ...)
I recommend using /config/UrlRewriting.config to do Permanent Redirect on all the old .html URL's to the new .aspx URL's. When doing it like this, Google and the other search engines will eventuelly pick up that the pages have moved, and still pass on any "link juice".
You do however have to configure your IIS to use .NET as a parser for .html files also. Or atleast I think so.
Remake of a .html site and keeping the indexed links functional
Hi,
There is probably no simple answer to this, but I'd like to know the possibilities.
We have a few websites that are basically serving static .html pages. All these site are indexed by the major search engines, so the urls are here to stay (right? --> you cannot change the index of for example google?)
So if we remake the site with umbraco/asp.net, we will have different links. Even if we keep the file and foldernames the same, we would have the .aspx extension differing from .html :(
I was thinking that if we could work out a urlrewrite rule that basically replaces the .html extension with .aspx ... we would still be able to serve the old/indexed links...
Are there other ways to do this?
Thanks
How many urls are involved?
You can setup IIS to handle html extension and then use urlRewrite or create your own notFoundHandler.
http://umbraco.org/documentation/books/not-found-handlers/creating-a-custom-not-found-handler
We have around 20 sites, each with around 30 urls ...
I understood and tested that IIS7 can also redirect directly (301-permanent) from the .html page to whatever you want it to redirect to.
This implies 2 things: Server access or hosting provider support and the old .html files so that you can apply the redirect to them.
@Petr: Might be an idea as well, saves the fact that you actually need the .html files on the server but still needs hosting provider involvement (which is hardly avoidable of course). thanks.
Add a httpmodule that catches the old url's and 303 redirects them to the new site.
301 redirect of course for the permanent redirect. Edit functions rule :)
@Bert and Petr: I need to configure IIS to pass .html requests to ASP.NET? What makes more sense? An NotFoundHandler or a HTTPmodule?
How much effort do you want to put in it?
I once made a webapplication that captured (via 404) the old URL's and 301 redirected them to the new URL's but you have to find a way to do this automated. Which is probably kind of hard if the html files are not dynamic. You probably have to map them to the new URL's manually. Because you can't really do an automated translation. This might be quite some work.
But it is a good thing to think about this because often people totally forget about this when launching a new website.
I just learned that webhost4life supports a redirect module which is user configurable (http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/nUrlRewriter/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=1978)
I think I might go this route. (It's a 20 bucks fee to enable it, but ok ... better than spending a few days creating my own solution and still to find out that I need them to change something on the server, which probably still sets us back a few dollars ...)
Thanks all for the replies.
I recommend using /config/UrlRewriting.config to do Permanent Redirect on all the old .html URL's to the new .aspx URL's. When doing it like this, Google and the other search engines will eventuelly pick up that the pages have moved, and still pass on any "link juice".
You do however have to configure your IIS to use .NET as a parser for .html files also. Or atleast I think so.
/SoerenS
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