Changing All My Site URLs

Hello MODx experts,

I need some advice and guidance. I have a monumental challenge which I hope has a reasonably simple solution (don’t we all ).

My site has been up and running for a few months now and it’s been a continual work in progress. Lately, I’ve been focusing hardcore on SEO, and in the process I’ve realized that my site’s URLs are not exactly search engine-friendly.

I have an ecommerce site. When I was first building it, I didn’t know a lot about SEO, so I wasn’t using search engine-friendly words/keywords in my internal page titles, and hence, my URLs. (Heck, I didn’t even know until recently that the page titles were being used to generate my URLs!)

The point is, I have now changed all my product names, IDs and Internal Page Titles to be more keyword-oriented. However, the problem is that my URLs didn’t change when I changed my page titles, so I still don’t have search engine-friendly URLS.

Ok, I’ll stop beating around the bush now. Here are my specific questions:

1. Is there a way to automatically change all my URLs to reflect my CURRENT (newly changed) Internal Page Titles?

2. If this is not possible, would an alternative solution be to manually change all the site URLs myself? (I have about 500 pages ).

3. If I do manage to change all my URLs using one of the methods listed above, what will happen to the old URLs? Will they disappear into oblivion? How will Google and other search engines treat the old URLs? (I imagine I’ll need to recreate and resubmit a new sitemap to Google)...

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Your help and expertise are greatly appreciated.

- Ruben C.

Sounds to me as you have Friendly URL turned on and that you mistakingly changed Page Title without also changing the Page Alias.
modx can generate alias for your pages (based on page title) if you clear the alias field.

This module ---> http://www.modxcms.com/Doc-Finder-Module-1962.html
will let you search and replace but maybe the easiest way is just go through your docs.

Firstly, SEO is not a "quick" process... read it again.

Secondly, there is nothing atm which mass process FURLs in the MODx, but that doesn’t mean that it cant be done. A script/snippet/module can do it.

But if you want to actually enjoy the benefits, I would go through them manually, and put appropriate titles, keywords, descriptions etc.

For old url handling, have a look at VirtualAliases plugin http://www.stanback.net/code/modx/virtual-aliases.html

I hope this helps

Mrhaw,

Thank you for the excellent advice! I don’t know why I didn’t think of clearing the alias myself. That worked perfectly to create a new URL based on my new alias. This looks like it might not be so painful after all...

Zi - Thanks for the link. Do I understand correctly that by downloading that plugin, my old URLs will be redirected to the new URLs? Does this apply to users as well as search engines? I’m just worried about the SEO repercussions of having 500 old, non-working URLs. After clearing the alias and creating a new url for one of my documents, the original alias for that document now redirects to my home page. Is this normal?

Thanks again for your help guys. I’m really grateful.

- Ruben C.

When making internal links in modx using <a href="[~1~]">Home</a>, where 1 is the id for that page, this will render the alias in the html-source by mod rewrite (htaccess). Maybe this is what you experience. Try clear the browser cache and see if the old alias still redirects you...

Mrhaw,

Well, I cleared my browser cache and the old URL still redirects to the homepage. Is this a problem? If this is not what it should be doing, what is the normal behavior of an old link?

- Ruben C.

Ok, I think I may have figured it out. I’ve been testing it and it appars that ANYTHING I put into my url after the backslash redirects to my home page. (i.e. www.mysite.com/whatever-68761.php).

Would it be safe to say, then, that any of the old URLs will be completely deleted and not confuse search engines once I clear the old alias and a new one is created?

Thanks

Check these links:
http://wiki.modxcms.com/index.php/Friendly_URLs_Guide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlGiypZZTSw

Hmm...well, thanks for the links mrhaw but I have to be honest - after reading that wiki entry and watching the video I’m even more confused than before. Is it bad that obsolete links redirect to my homepage? What does it mean if it’s not "parsing the files correctly," and how do I fix it? What would be the negative effects of just leaving it the way it is?

Can’t I just clear all the aliases, thereby creating unique and seo-friendly urls, then create a new sitemap and submit it to Google and delete my old sitemap?

I’m sorry for all the questions, it’s just that I’m not exactly a "web developer." I’ve only recently learned basic HTML/CSS and SEO. The guy who actually set up my site for me isn’t around anymore, so I’m trying to figure things out on my own for the time being.


Thank you all for your patience.

- Ruben C.

Are all your links and url’s pointing/redirecting visitors to: www.foo.com/index.php or index.html?
Were you you able to navigate the page before you changed all the page titles?

Tip! http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/board,224.0.html