Student Webmaster: Website Resdesign Part 3

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Website Redesign

	Part 1
	Part 2
	Part 4

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Website Redesign

Part 3: Mapping your old site to the new one
This is the task that most site redesigns neglect completely. All to often, the site visitor is frequently faced with an inexplicable "404 - File Not Found" error following a site redesign. With all of the options available for linking, redirects, and refreshes, there is ABSOLUTELY no excuse for this. Many sites have large numbers of search engines and external sites linking to interior pages, and sometimes these links will persist for two, three or even four years. I know, hard to believe, but I can show you links to some of my pages that are over four years old. For pages on the new site that occupy the same URL, no mapping is necessary, but there may not be many of these. For every other page and directory on the old site, there are three options:

1) Link or alias the pages and directories to the corresponding new pages or directories through use of the UNIX linking mechanism or server aliasing on NT systems. This preserves the original address which in some cases may be fine, but in others may not be a desirable outcome as the user does not learn the new address of the page or directory
2) Redirect the old page to a corresponding new page. Redirection can be accomplished in Apache, NCSA, and Netscape servers by means of .htaccess files in directories or more specifically in the server configuration files. This preserves the viability of the original addresses but shows the new address when the page is loaded; users may or may not notice the new address.
3) Use the META REFRESH tag at the old address to load the page from the new address. This may be necessary with some NT servers that do not support redirection. This may be the preferable option as the old page can be used to explain that the page has moved and request that any bookmarks be updated to reflect the new address. Normal practice is to have the REFRESH attribute load the new page automatically after a brief delay. These pages should also include a link to the new page for older browsers that don't support the REFRESH attribute.

But what about pages that will no longer exist nor have a new counterpart under the new design? Well, gee, if people use the old page, why would you get rid of it? Strangely enough, folks do this all the time! If a page will no longer exist, you owe it to your users to explain WHY it no longer exists, and even suggest some places where they can go to get similar information. Don't just give them a 404 error! When wired.com recently discontinued their Wired Cybrarian meta-index site, it was a 404 error that greeted users. You owe it to your users to do better. The upshot is that there is no excuse for 404 errors due to your resign. Cover EVERY page from your old site, no matter how insignificant it may seem, either by an appropriate new page with some type of path from the old page, or by some explanation as to why the old page is no longer there. TO PART 4 -->>