Google’s John Mueller further said Twitter He would recommend changing the URLs again and then changing them again and repeating that for SEO reasons. The person wanted to do this for SEO testing, but in general changing URLs in SEO is not a recommended strategy unless you’re fixing an issue of some sort.
Once you start changing URLs, that new URL must all receive its own new signals. Of course you can redirect the old URL to the new URL, but if you’re just changing the URL to test it and then plan on changing it again, it’s probably not a good idea.
John continued Twitter “I would avoid changing and resetting URLs temporarily, so if you could display the new page at the current URL it would probably be both easier for search and give you a clearer signal as to how search is responding would (removes clutter when changing sides).”
Here’s the context:
Can you explain that in more detail? It sounds like using the better side is good overall?
— 🦝 John (personal) 🦝 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2022
So what’s the impact of sending 100% bot and user traffic to a test page if you still want to keep the original indexed? We’re still set up with a 302 and a canonicle on the original site, only the test will get 100% traffic.
— Mark Stroud (@markstroudSEO) April 11, 2022
I would avoid temporarily changing and resetting URLs. So, if you could display the new page at the current URL, it would probably be both easier for search and give you a clearer signal as to how search would respond (removes the page-breaking clutter).
— 🦝 John (personal) 🦝 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2022
forum discussion below Twitter.
