If you're looking for a large site migration to go without a hitch you're going to need a robust and methodical way of working through your redirects - no matter how big the site. Migrations are the make of break point of any site process because you have, in theory, everything to lose if it is done wrong. In this presentation Chris will run through the framework with which to approach redirect mapping of a new site process. Rest of the blog writeup can be found here - https://strategiqmarketing.co.uk/blog/htaccess-hell-brightonseo-2016/

1. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
@chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
.htaccess Hell
Managing a Migration When There’s
No Easy Answer

2. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
A site migration
Possibly the most important moment in a
website’s life-cycle

3. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
A site migration
Possibly the most important moment in a
website’s life-cycle

4. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Done well, a new site can launch without
hitch

5. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Done badly, all your hard work will go
down the

6. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016

7. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
On small sites this can be really easy

8. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
On small sites this can be really easy
On large sites... ?

9. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016

10. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
That doesn’t mean you can just
shrug it off
(don’t be lazy)

11. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
It’s make or break for your new
website
(I really mean it, don’t be lazy)

12. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
In this presentation I’ll show
you

13. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
How to scope the size of the
redirect challenge

14. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
How to prioritise redirects

15. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Tactics to help map them
(less painfully - at least)

16. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
“Best-case” matching when
there’s no exact

17. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Testing redirects pre & post
launch

18. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Keeping organised

19. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Scoping the size of the redirect
trouble

20. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
1) Crawl your website

21. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
1) Crawl your website

22. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
2) Crawl any sitemaps

23. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
3) Export landing page
URLs from GA

24. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
If the 5,000 row limit is too much of a pain -
try http://bit.ly/analytics-edge

25. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
4) Extract URLs from
logs

26. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
4) Extract URLs from
logs

27. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Or maybe you can be adventurous and use
command line
This resource rocks, thanks Oliver Mason!-> http://bit.ly/log-command-line

28. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
5) Scrape Google
(but be nice)

29. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
“But wait, this sounds a right faff!”
(I thought I told you not to be lazy)

30. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Prioritising redirects

31. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
1) Common-sense - top level
pages

32. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
2) Top-ranking pages

33. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
3) Top trafficked pages

34. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
4) Most crawled pages
(from log files)

35. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
5) … and if possible
everything else

36. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Mapping redirects

37. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
1) Directory rewrites

38. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
In .htaccess for example:
RewriteRule ^old-blog/(.*)$ /new-blog/$1 [R=301,NC,L]
www.domain.com/old-blog/best-post-evar
301s to
www.domain.com/new-blog/best-post-evar

39. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Some more handy .htaccess rules?
http://bit.ly/aleyda-htaccess

40. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
That’s the easy part over and done with!

41. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
2) Old-to-new post/
product matching

42. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Can be done in many different ways - depends on commonalities:
- Post/Product ID
- Post/Product Name
- Post/Product Title
- URL Key Matching
etc...

43. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
For example:
http://bit.ly/ecom-redirect-drive

44. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Make friends with a developer
(Seriously - buy them a drink and everything!)

45. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
But that’s not a get out of jail free card!

46. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
3) Manually match them

47. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016

48. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
This is up to you to do the hard work…
Filters are your friend too

49. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Filter your URLs, look for:
- Specific keywords
- Directories
- Parameters

50. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
“Best case” matching

51. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
1) Don’t just over-redirect to
the homepage or top-level
categories
(This leads into soft 404s!)

52. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Don’t just take my word for it
Ask Glenn Gabe
http://bit.ly/soft-404s

53. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
2) Match to the closest
available example

54. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
3) If there’s no suitable
alternative, don’t be afraid to
let it drop
(if it’s important and there’s no alternative, you’re
doing it wrong!)

55. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Redirect implementation?
Assuming that you’re using apache -
http://bit.ly/htaccess-for-seos

56. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Redirect testing

57. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
1) Modify redirects to
“work” on staging/dev

58. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Change the hostname to
dev/staging
(change back before launch though!)

59. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
2) Crawl, crawl & crawl
again!

60. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Change host on your old
list of redirects & crawl

61. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Pro tip:
Just because there’s a 301 response,
doesn’t mean it’s the right destination!

62. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
3) Test again after
launch

63. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Make sure nothing breaks after!

64. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Keeping organised

65. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
1) Excel/google docs is your
friend

66. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
2) Include 301 mapping into
your sitemap - start early!
http://bit.ly/sitemap-redirect-template

67. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
3) Learn to Vlookup!
http://bit.ly/vlookup-beginners

68. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
4) Save often, split your
workbook if things get too
heavy

69. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
To recap...

70. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
It takes time but it’s worth it!

71. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Properly scope the size of the problem

72. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Prioritise - more is better, but it has to
stop somewhere

73. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Map redirects intelligently - pattern or
directory match where you can

74. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Make friends with a developer!

75. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Test, test & test again

76. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Download this, it’ll help
http://bit.ly/sitemap-redirect-template

77. @chrisgreen87
@StrategiQ
#BrightonSEO
2nd September 2016
Thank you.
@chrisgreen87
http://bit.ly/htaccess-hell