Hello all,

We have a website that is running on DNN 4.9.5.  We are in the process of upgrading to DNN 5.5 and have a question about page ranking and how the search engines will treat the changed URLs.  The site's page currently have good ranking in Google and we don't want to lose that. We also noticed that the old URLs work just fine since they still contain the tabid in the URL.  So our questions are, once upgraded will the new URLs be treated like new pages to the search engines?  Also, will the site get downgraded for having what the search engine might think is "duplicate" pages?

When we posed the question about renaming URLs in Google's Webmaster Forum they're response was to use a 301 permanent redirect:
If you Move things or Rename them - you should setup 301 Permanent Redirects. 

This means that your Server/Script will return a 301 Response, and a New Location when someone asks for the Old address. 
This means that rather than seeing a dead page/404 response .... they will automatically get forwarded to the New address and see the content they wanted to. 

This has many benefits: 
  It means that visitors/searchers don't get angry/upset because what they were looking for is gone. 
  It means that you may retain the Traffic. 
  It means that Google and other SE's should start updating their data and replace the Old stuff with the New in the SERPs. 
  It means that any LinkValue/PageRank/Trust that Google had for the Old may be passed to the New. 


If you do NOT do this - then: 
  It may result in visitors/searches getting narked at you/your site/your business because you removed stuff they wanted 
  It may mean that your traffic/conversions go down. 
  It may mean that Old stuff stays in the SERPs for longer (upsetting more Searchers!) 
  It may mean that you lose out on any additional PR/Trust the Old page had 
  It means the New stuff starts almost from Scratch - and is treated as a New page (it has to be cawled ad scored etc.) 
  It may mean that google can thinks there are 2 versions of the same content - this may cause some Duplication issues till Google realises the Old stuff is gone (so long as your site sends a 404/410 response!) 

The latter part should be Noted : Make sure that your site/script/server sends correct 404 or 410 responses for pages that do not exist! 
If you move/rename something - and your site sends a 200 - then Google is may keep on thinking your stuff is stil there! 
(Google only wants Unique/Original Content - if it thinks you have 2+ pages the same, it may not show the New stuff!) 

Should we be setting up 301 redirects for all of the old URLs?
Thank you,

Yogs

Thank you Chris, we'll definitely have a look at Ifinity's solution.