Hello everyone,

I've been working with Google webmaster tools and about a month ago have been getting some not found errors on some of our blog category articles. I noticed that for some reason the SEF url structure changed for some items in our blog. Here's an example...

Old url Google webmaster now cannot find:
index.php/blog/75-focus-on-technology-what-is-joomla

New url:
index.php/blog/2-blog/75-focus-on-technology-what-is-joomla

Not sure how this could have happened. But what is the best way to address this so that I can quell the Google not found errors?

We are using Joomla 1.5.22, no other component was installed for content during this time. The only thing that might be associated with it is K2 but we installed that long ago and never got to utilizing it. Any insight on this matter would be much appreciated. Let me know if you need anymore information.

Hi and welcome, MMPatriko!

First, let's get your Joomla version updated to 1.5.26, because your current one has several security issues. Here's our tutorial on how to update easily:
www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/how-to-up...min-tools-extension/

Then, let's get your URLs to be the way that you'd like them by using our Ultimate Joomla SEF Guide (for example, do you want to get rid of the "index.php" from the URL?):
www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/ultimate-joomla-sef-guide/

Finally, once you have those things in order, send us a link to your site so that we take a quick look at how you decided to set up your URLs and we'll go from there.

Kind regards,
Nick

Thanks Nick,

I will see about getting us updated.

As for the SEF, does the Apache mod_rewrite option have any impact on website loading and performance? I want to make sure the sites still load fast and it's not taking extra time to rewrite the urls.

Hi MMPatriko,

You're welcome!

There's no performance lost by using Joomla's built-in SEO settings.

Kind regards,
Nick

It sounds like using that Apache mod_rewrite would be a good thing. However I'm concerned what Google will think, as suddenly all the links in the site will be changed. Not to mention any links we have posted previously would be no good. Will this have an adverse reaction to our search engine placement? If there is any adverse reaction I would say we would have to keep it as it is.

EDIT: Would making these changes and then resubmitting an updated sitemap xml to Google Webmaster help erase the old links in Google and show the newer, updated url structure?

Hi MMPatriko,

Yes, it has the potential to negatively impact your SEO in the short term, however with the potential to positively impact your SEO in the long term.

Key questions, how many pages does your site have? How well are you doing in SEO right now? Could we get a link to your site to take a quick look?

Yes, Google would eventually update all their cached links and show the new ones.

Kind regards,
Nick

I would say our site roughly has 120+ articles, most of those would be blogs or portfolio items.

Right now we've had a tough time with search engines for a long time not even showing up! Just recently we've found ourselves on the third page but not even the front page. Understand though, have been working at this for months now and it can get frustrating at times.

Sure, our company website is www.newwebexperts.com.

Hi MMPatriko,

OK, it appears that you're using Joomla 1.5. Check out our SEO class for Joomla 1.5:
www.ostraining.com/courses/class/joomla15/j15-seo/

Going back to your original blog issue, looks like you're using K2. Did you recently change the blog from regular articles to K2 items? Either way, the issue is related to your blog menu item and how you have that set up. You likely recently changed the menu item type and that resulted in a change of URL structure.

Kind regards,
Nick