So after a few years learning the ins and outs of your business and SEO tactics, you decide to change your website and completely revamp the design and content.
Many people don’t know if they should change the URL for better or more relevant SEO because it already has history and some juice flowing through its veins from search engines.
Folks that know SEO will shutter at the question. You want to be relevant and give people exactly what they’re clicking into but at the same time, you don’t want to lose that juice to your site by completely changing the URL, not to mention any backlinks you might be generating as well.
So what should you do in this situation?
In our opinion, it’s best to keep the URL the same, if you can. The only real reason to change the URL is if your product, service, or information, is completely different.
Let me show you a few examples so you can assess what changes would be necessary for you and your page revamps.
Let’s say your page was made to sell a specific model of iPhone case. People know, love, and cherish this case and your URL has the model number that corresponds to that product.
A little way down the road, you find the manufacturer has stopped making that case and you need to find a replacement fast. You find one that’s the exact same color, same design, just a different model number. In this instance, it’s best to keep the URL you have.
People aren’t going to be confused by this change and if you really want to appease the die-hard fans of the old case, you can leave a disclaimer at the bottom telling people that the model is no longer being made and this is the closest product available.
The only time you actually need to change the URL is when your content or page changes so drastically that people will get confused when they land on it.
You don’t entice people with a URL about an in-depth “Avengers” movie preview then lead them to a preview for the new season of “Marvel’s Agents of Shield” television show. Maybe you saw a lot of traffic with the old URL but got shut down by Disney for some reason, it happens. However, since the entire page changed, you have to change the URL as well; otherwise, people will come to your page and get frustrated with you and likely won’t return for your content.
It’s similar but not what people wanted to see when they clicked your link.
You should always be honest with your audience and give them what they want. You may lose traffic to that page at first but it will eventually regain that rank, especially if your new topic is more popular than the previous one.
