[Pro] Change file name and index with search engine

Freeway
1

Help please. I have just figured out how to make my file names longer on my web pages so that the whole file appears in the web address bar. However I have just searched for my website and up came the older version that I have uploaded that had a shorter file name. When I click on it, it goes nowhere. I have also just submitted my site map to the search engines using the site mapper tool.

My website is: www.didgesoundtherapy.co.uk

The full file name of one of my pages should now be
http://www.didgesoundtherapy.co.uk/pregnancyanddidgeridoosoundtherapy.html.

A previous version of which has been indexed by google is:
http://www.didgesoundtherapy.co.uk/pregnancyanddidg.html.

How do I fix this?

This is the same story for a few of my pages after I figured out how to change the file name length.

Kind Regards
Gregg

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2

Hi Gregg

I have had similar issues in the past - normally because i forget that the page names get cropped. My solution when a page has been indexed or when i create a more search engine friendly URL is to use a 301 redirect.

A 301 is a permanent redirect message to the search engines that the url has been moved permanently to the new location, whereas a 302 is a temporary move.

I also add some extra code into my htaccess file to remove the index.html bit from the home page, and to make the pages write to the www. extension always.

To create a htacces file, open Text Edit or a similar plain text editor and paste in the following:

RewriteEngine On
Options +Indexes

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /index.html [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*/)?index.html$ /$1 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.didgesoundtherapy.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]

Redirect 301 /pregnancyanddidg.html /pregnancyanddidgeridoosoundtherapy.html

Only add the text not the lines as that was just to make this post clearer.

Save the file as htaccess on you computer somewhere.

Upload this file to the root directory - where your site is uploaded to - and then rename the file to .htaccess.

If you add the dot before you upload it, the file will be hidden on your computer and then you will have to search for hidden files!

You can remove the code other than the 301 redirect if you don’t want that functionality, but as I’m writing this reply, I thought I’d share my own practice with you.

Hope this helps.

Alan…

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3

How do I fix this?

Time is the great healer - unless you want to go down the 301 redirect route. Google will come round and sort this in their own sweet time. Might be a couple of days, weeks…

Personally I would use the format: pregnancy-and-didgeridoo-sound-therapy.html

David

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4

Yup. I’d go with Dave on this.

I always hyphenate the words in my url’s as it not only makes it more human readable, but it is also recommended on many places i have explored about SEO tips.

Hope this works out well for you.

Alan…

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5

Thanks for the help chaps.

Much appreciated.

Have managed to redirect the webpages.

All the best

Gregg

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