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Noah
Noah
Jan 19, 2025, 11:14 AM
Forwarded from another channel:
Forwarded thread from another channel:
RP
RP
Nov 18, 2024, 8:22 AM
1.5 million pages URLs to be changed from: This_Sort_Of_Example to: this-sort-of-example. (going to lowercase with hyphen). Has anyone experienced it before? Care to share some important details for the project scope?
Kyle Faber
Kyle Faber
Nov 18, 2024, 8:23 AM
Make sure redirects are in place and working
Make sure you have an XML sitemap for both the old URLs, and an XML sitemap for the new URLs - submit both to GSC
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Nov 18, 2024, 8:30 AM
Why do it at all? What's the business reason for this that outweighs risks?
RP
RP
Nov 18, 2024, 8:32 AM
This is related to something I asked about recently:
(If I need to merge and bump the original let me know).
Our large 1.5 million ecommerce website uses PascalCase with hyphen. A lot of the pages are pragmatically generated.
It has been mentioned before about how this is not a best practice but is it worth changing, I like the phrase which I learnt from here "is the juice worth the squeeze"? ????
I have now been tasked to research this in more detail and influence the outcome.
Concerns which come to mind are:
1. Redirects.
2. Internal links.
3. Regex code for existing functions.
4. Sitemaps.
I know it is hard to answer, is it worth doing? I would like to say yes but need to be confident!
Another important bit of context is that we are looking at introducing ecommerce categories at the same time so this will also result in some URL directory changes (site structure).
I like to err on the side of caution, do one thing at a time.
Forwarded from another channel:
RP
RP
Nov 18, 2024, 8:33 AM
Thanks regarding sitemap. That is helpful.
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Nov 18, 2024, 8:34 AM
I recall that, but I still don't understand the business case for it.
Tony Castillo
Tony Castillo
Nov 18, 2024, 8:46 AM
Agree with @Mika Lepistö... If the business wants to move to a new format for readability of reports, or some non-technical reason, could you start adopting the new hyphenated URL taxonomy format for net-new URLs and leave the ones that have already been created as is.
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Nov 18, 2024, 8:48 AM
Or just stick with the old format. Is this a mental block between adding content vs existing programmatic Ecom and them not matching?
Jan-Willem Bobbink
Jan-Willem Bobbink
Nov 18, 2024, 9:06 AM
Some project context. In other words: don't create unnecessary redirects. Let alone on a scale you are discussing.
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Nov 18, 2024, 9:10 AM
That is always my concern. If this is a must with compelling business case, I'd roll it out in phases to mitigate impact. Otherwise I'd avoid touching it.
RP
RP
Nov 18, 2024, 9:14 AM
The business reason is that we want to ensure we are doing _everything possible_ from a technical reason if it gives us an advantage and builds the foundation for strong future proof growth.
My gut feeling is, wow! scary. If the URLs are working don't change them. Certainly don't change them amongst other URL structure changes!
Tony Castillo
Tony Castillo
Nov 18, 2024, 9:15 AM
I would advise that changing the case of the URLs won't further that business objective.
Tony Castillo
Tony Castillo
Nov 18, 2024, 9:15 AM
Good news, you can take it off the list of action items and redirect effort.
RP
RP
Nov 18, 2024, 9:15 AM
Thanks to you all for the fast replies!
Kyle Faber
Kyle Faber
Nov 18, 2024, 9:16 AM
I’d second your gut feeling. My comments above were meant to answer your question, but that’s with the assumption we’ve already asked why we’re doing it and have concluded that we should (or are exploring the option).
Kyle Faber
Kyle Faber
Nov 18, 2024, 9:16 AM
@Mika Lepistö made a good call in questioning doing it at all.
RP
RP
Nov 18, 2024, 9:17 AM
Excellent, so the general consensus is changing the URLs is not worth doing and there is a high risk.
Yeah, brainstorming on here and really questioning it helps. *Thank you community*!
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Nov 18, 2024, 9:18 AM
Knowing the situation a bit more from our conversations I'd suspect this is probably coming from a misguided management perspective with a focus on minutia.
Kyle Faber
Kyle Faber
Nov 18, 2024, 9:19 AM
Changing URLs, especially at scale, is always a high risk. It can and likely would have a material impact on short term revenue.
RP
RP
Nov 18, 2024, 9:19 AM
There is a genuine aspect: are we doing *everything possible* to optimise the site (including URL changes).
Jan-Willem Bobbink
Jan-Willem Bobbink
Nov 18, 2024, 9:22 AM
In general I think the impact of URLs on rankings is overestimated. Having a stable setup is often way more important than how URLs look
RP
RP
Nov 18, 2024, 9:23 AM
If in 1 years time, changing the URLs (and for the new URLs e.g. brands, content, categories going forwards) is the right thing then yes we would consider it now. Short term pain for long term gain. But is it actually worth it? Could anyone argue or provide evidence than "" get better results* than
*rankings is the main focus from management
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Nov 18, 2024, 9:23 AM
Right, but with the objective at improving rankings, right? At what cost though? Creating work and risk for no SEO gain (besides reporting or other) while pushing back other objectives, which may have much higher impact?
RP
RP
Nov 18, 2024, 9:25 AM
In terms of priority, changing URLs is way down the list then.
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Nov 18, 2024, 9:25 AM
Look at TripAdvisor. They use a similar camel case underscore format. Have been since forever.
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Nov 18, 2024, 9:26 AM
It matters very little (if at all) now, so I expect it will matter not at all in the future, from a ranking perspective.
RP
RP
Nov 18, 2024, 9:28 AM
It is recommended and it is a best practice. I know you all know this! But this is why I have been tasked to actively research and get facts/data so a decision can be made.
It's a good idea to keep your site's URL structure as simple as possible. Learn more about the URL format recommended by Google, such as the use of hyphens, underscores, and domain structure.
Google for Developers: Google URL Structure Guidelines | Google Search Central  |  Documentation  |  Google for Developers
RP
RP
Nov 18, 2024, 9:28 AM
Yes I believe that as algo's evolve URLs will become less relevant.
RP
RP
Nov 18, 2024, 9:29 AM
I think I will submit a Google office hours question
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Nov 18, 2024, 9:30 AM
Answered almost a decade ago.
Most SEOs know that if you start a new site, the URL structure should use hyphens to separate the keywords and not underscores. So for this URL for this blog...
Search Engine Roundtable: Google Doesn't Care About Underscores Vs. Dashes In URLs
Kyle Faber
Kyle Faber
Nov 18, 2024, 9:30 AM
Let’s put it this way; it’s a best practice IF:
• you’re just starting out
• You HAVE to redo them due to a technical reason
It’s not a best practice to redo them for the sake of it. And best practices do not always mean better rankings (or traffic or most importantly, revenue)
Jan-Willem Bobbink
Jan-Willem Bobbink
Nov 18, 2024, 9:34 AM
There are plenty of examples where websites rank perfectly fine while using underscores in their URLs. So you will never get consensus on this topic.
Kyle Faber
Kyle Faber
Nov 18, 2024, 9:34 AM
For color, I redid the routes of an entire section of our site this summer. We did this because we had a 30% indexing rate and saw room for improvement (lower risk, higher long term reward).
If we were at something like a 90% indexing rate, I would never have considered it and would have looked at other methods for solving the issues we had.
Jan-Willem Bobbink
Jan-Willem Bobbink
Nov 18, 2024, 9:37 AM
And I am so happy Google is very clear about it #not - So just ignore Google resources and check what is actually ranking.
RP
RP
Nov 18, 2024, 9:38 AM
*You guys are awesome! Thank you!*
Boris Kuslitskiy
Boris Kuslitskiy
Nov 18, 2024, 4:51 PM
You should do it. The next time you're relaunching the site and have to do redirects anyway. And not before.

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