How do I get my files indexed by the search engines after a redesign where

[kategirdlelock]

How do I get my files indexed by the search engines after a redesign where file names have changed?

[Dani]

If you're using Apache, use 301 redirects in your .htaccess file to force a 'permanent redirect' from the old URLs to the new ones. This will indicate to Google, and the other search engines, to update their records, and let them know that the page has simply moved.

You need to upload an .htaccess file that looks something like this:

RewriteEngine on
Redirect 301 /old_page.html http://www.example.com/new_page.html
Redirect 301 /old_page_2.html http://www.example.com/new_page_2.html

Not sure how to do 301 redirects outside of the Apache web server however. It's possible, just not my expertise.

[Ketul_1]

I agree with you. I redirect many links by this method using with htaccess file.

[Dani]

Yup, a 301 redirect is a 'permanent redirect' meaning you're telling Google the page (with similar contents) has moved to a new location.

[Hemanth Malli]

Hi,

After redesigning you have to create robot.txt file with perfect navigation. This robot.txt file is available in C-panel.

[almostbob]

submitting a revised sitemap to google webmaster will speed up reindexing to the new uri

[Dani]

Hemanth, the robots.txt file (which, I guess, certain hosting companies let you modify from cPanel, or you can just upload the darn thing yourself) is a list of web pages you want to tell the search engines to ignore and not index.

But, yeah, submitting a revised sitemap certainly won't hurt.

[Hemanth Malli]

Hi Dani,

I am not agreeing with your point. Robots.txt file is not only for indexing, it also helps to crawl your WebPages. So that, if you update robots.txt file, any search engine can identifies and crawls your updated pages automatically.