Questions on redesign

Hello all,

I have redesigned my site because of several tips I received from
users here. Thank you all for the input.
The redesign has led me to more questions.

I had my structure built using underscores such as
select_propeller_by_brand
and in the redesign I used select-brand-propeller. Is the - better
than a _? (as for SE's)
I changed many other items in my file structure too, and I have
uploaded the entire new site to my server. Now, if I delete the old
files from my server then the links will be dead that are currently
cached at search engines. I created a robots.txt to disallow further
spidering of the old directories and I created a default error 404
page just in case I deleted a page that is listed with the SE's.
At this point, I am not sure if I should delete the old files now, or
wait a while until I see the new pages in the se's. What do you all
think? Also, is this considered a mirror? I didn't change much on the
pages, primarily I moved java and css to an external file but metas on
the new pages are the same as the old. I don't want dead links from
SE's but I don't want the all mighty SE's to bring their wrath down on
me either. Any help would be appreciated!
Scott Shepherd
www.propline.com

I also had a followup question......
I have used jump menus on the second level of the site and beyond ie
<select name="menu1" onChange="MM_jumpMenu('parent',this,1)">
<option selected>Please Select Your Engine Application</option>
<option value="../../Select-Boat-Props-By-Brand/Power-Tech-Propellers/Force_Chrysler_USMarine_main_4_blade.htm">Force,
Chrysler, and US Marine Outboards</option>

Can SE bots follow this type of internal link structure?

Thanks
Scott
www.propline.com

If you have enough space on your server, I would keep the old files
for a while. That way, if those pages are indexed by search engines,
the users that click on them will have somewhere to land. I would
give the new site a few months atleast before I thought about deleting
the old ones. As far as mirroring, You should be OK, people update
their sites all the time. You shouldn't be penalized for that.

Kim Lauren
V.P. Business Development
KaZaZZ! Search Engine
www.kazazz.com

scott (AT) propline (DOT) com (Scott Shepherd) wrote in message news:<ba4654ab.0402070825.1185ebee (AT) posting (DOT) google.com>...

Hello all,

I have redesigned my site because of several tips I received from
users here. Thank you all for the input.
The redesign has led me to more questions.

I had my structure built using underscores such as
select_propeller_by_brand
and in the redesign I used select-brand-propeller. Is the - better
than a _? (as for SE's)
I changed many other items in my file structure too, and I have
uploaded the entire new site to my server. Now, if I delete the old
files from my server then the links will be dead that are currently
cached at search engines. I created a robots.txt to disallow further
spidering of the old directories and I created a default error 404
page just in case I deleted a page that is listed with the SE's.
At this point, I am not sure if I should delete the old files now, or
wait a while until I see the new pages in the se's. What do you all
think? Also, is this considered a mirror? I didn't change much on the
pages, primarily I moved java and css to an external file but metas on
the new pages are the same as the old. I don't want dead links from
SE's but I don't want the all mighty SE's to bring their wrath down on
me either. Any help would be appreciated!
Scott Shepherd
www.propline.com

Hi Scott,

I recommend that you set up permanent (301) redirects from your old
URLs to the new pages. If your server is Apache then this is done in
your .htaccess file.

You should change your robots.txt file to _allow_ the spiders to find
the old URLs, they will note the redirect & update their index with the
new URLs.

With these redirects in place you can delete the old files from the
server, they will never be served.

I hope this helps,

Bob

In article <ba4654ab.0402070825.1185ebee (AT) posting (DOT) google.com>, Scott
Shepherd <scott (AT) propline (DOT) com> wrote:

Hello all,

I have redesigned my site because of several tips I received from
users here. Thank you all for the input.
The redesign has led me to more questions.

I had my structure built using underscores such as
select_propeller_by_brand
and in the redesign I used select-brand-propeller. Is the - better
than a _? (as for SE's)
I changed many other items in my file structure too, and I have
uploaded the entire new site to my server. Now, if I delete the old
files from my server then the links will be dead that are currently
cached at search engines. I created a robots.txt to disallow further
spidering of the old directories and I created a default error 404
page just in case I deleted a page that is listed with the SE's.
At this point, I am not sure if I should delete the old files now, or
wait a while until I see the new pages in the se's. What do you all
think? Also, is this considered a mirror? I didn't change much on the
pages, primarily I moved java and css to an external file but metas on
the new pages are the same as the old. I don't want dead links from
SE's but I don't want the all mighty SE's to bring their wrath down on
me either. Any help would be appreciated!
Scott Shepherd
www.propline.com

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