Getting New Files Indexed After a Redesign

Q. I've finally redesigned my circa-1997 Web site, and all the file names have changed. What should I do to ensure that the search engines index my new pages?

A. There are technical things you can do at the server level to redirect all the old file names to the new ones, but quite frankly, I would simply wait it out and allow nature to take its course in due time. Unfortunately, there may be a period of a few months where your old pages are still indexed, and your new ones aren't, but things will work themselves out over time.

Do make sure that you have a custom 404-error page in place that will display when people click to one of your old pages from the engines. Also be sure to have some sort of search box and or sitemap on your 404-error page so that the visitor can actively and easily seek out what they came to find. Plus, don't forget to check that the old URLs serve up an actual 404 HTTP header code so that the engines know to purge them from their databases eventually. You can check this using any HTTP header viewer tool.