Updating Site - Maintaining External Links

I'm redesigning my old site to use CSS and switching from htm to php. Most
of the directory structure will remain though some of it will change. I know
there are some links to my site from other sites. Is there any recommended
way of changing a site so as to avoid broken links on other sites? Should I
maintain the existing pages online but put links to the corresponding new
pages? This could be very time-consuming. Is there an easier way? How
difficult is is to create a customised "file not found" page and have broken
links directed there? As cxan be gathered from my questions I know next to
nothing about this!

I'd really like some advice.

Chris (Hunt)

Should I

maintain the existing pages online but put links to the corresponding new
pages? This could be very time-consuming. Is there an easier way? How
difficult is is to create a customised "file not found" page and have
broken links directed there? As cxan be gathered from my questions I know
next to nothing about this!

Very easy to create a "file not found" page. Just make your page however
you want, name it 404.htm or 404.html and my guess is that your host already
has one of those names set to display when non-existing URLs in your domain
are sought. You should explore your webhost to doublecheck (or you could
just make one of each and see what shows up when you test).

tim

"Chris (Hunt)" <now (AT) wisemeathat (DOT) com> wrote

I'm redesigning my old site to use CSS and switching from htm
to php. Most of the directory structure will remain though
some of it will change. I know there are some links to my
site from other sites. Is there any recommended way of
changing a site so as to avoid broken links on other sites?

Should I maintain the existing pages online but put links to
the corresponding new pages? This could be very time-
consuming. Is there an easier way? How difficult is is to
create a customised "file not found" page and have broken
links directed there? As cxan be gathered from my questions
I know next to nothing about this!

The easiest way would be to configure the server to parse .html/.htm files
with PHP. For those pages that MUST be renamed or moved, use a server side
re-direct with a 302 status code that tells user agents that the page has
been moved permanently. How you go about that would depend on what server
software is being used on the host.

Gary

Thanks for the replies - what is a 302 status code?

Chris


"Gary White" wrote:

The easiest way would be to configure the server to parse .html/.htm files
with PHP. For those pages that MUST be renamed or moved, use a server side
re-direct with a 302 status code that tells user agents that the page has
been moved permanently. How you go about that would depend on what server
software is being used on the host.

Gary

Chris (Hunt) wrote:

Thanks for the replies - what is a 302 status code?

My mistake. It should have been 301. When a browser requests a page from
a server, the server sends back a response. The first line of the
response is a status line. The status line includes the HTTP version, a
status-code, and a reason phrase.

The status code is a three digit number. The one most users are familiar
with is 404, which is that the requested resource was not found. A
normal, successfully filled request will get a status code of 200. The
301 code, that I should have mentioned, tells the user agent that the
resource has been moved permanently. While not terribly important for
browsers, it is important for search engine robots.

You can read more than you ever wanted to know about server responses
and status codes in the HTTP 1.1 standards at
http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec6.html


Gary

Thanks Gary, that definitely sounds worth following up.

All the best,

Chris


"Gary White" <reply (AT) newsgroup (DOT) please> wrote

Chris (Hunt) wrote:

Thanks for the replies - what is a 302 status code?


My mistake. It should have been 301. When a browser requests a page from
a server, the server sends back a response. The first line of the
response is a status line. The status line includes the HTTP version, a
status-code, and a reason phrase.

The status code is a three digit number. The one most users are familiar
with is 404, which is that the requested resource was not found. A
normal, successfully filled request will get a status code of 200. The
301 code, that I should have mentioned, tells the user agent that the
resource has been moved permanently. While not terribly important for
browsers, it is important for search engine robots.

You can read more than you ever wanted to know about server responses
and status codes in the HTTP 1.1 standards at
http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec6.html


Gary

"Chris (Hunt)" <now (AT) wisemeathat (DOT) com> wrote

Thanks Gary, that definitely sounds worth following up.

All the best,

You're welcome, Chris. Good luck!

Gary