renaming threads -changing urls - SEO implications

[Art Andrews]

I have done come initial testing but thought I would reach out here and see what you guys know...

One of the things we often do as a staff is rewrite member's threads titles when they are too vague or confusing. We are a movie prop and costume site so it often makes sense to include a movie title or character name in the thread title but members often don't include those.

With vbseo, obviously, the thread title becomes the URL... and when you change the name of the thread title, it changes the URL.

In initial testing, I see that if I change the thread title but have a link pointing to the old url, clicking on the old url will automatically send me to the new url, which is great!

My question is, how long does this last? Indefinitely?

What happens to old inbound links if I change the thread title multiple times?

If vbseo keeps up with all these changes and keeps a log of redirects to make sure old links remap to the correct new url, what kind of overhead is that creating?

Just curious if anyone has the answers or has looked into this.

[Mert Gökçeimam]

Thread urls have id inside them. As long as they have id , you can safely rename your threads.

[edq]

So this is good for SEO?

[Brian Cummiskey]

Moving or changing is never GOOD, but the redirect will help the new thread get indexed and any old links to the old url will be re-directed correctly.

[edq]

Moving or changing is never GOOD, but the redirect will help the new thread get indexed and any old links to the old url will be re-directed correctly.

Thanks, I just plan on changing specific threads titles that will help users find our site eaiser.

[Brian Cummiskey]

I would only suggest doing this on new threads (as in the past hour or so). Beyond that, it's probably already on its way to being indexed.

[edq]

I would only suggest doing this on new threads (as in the past hour or so). Beyond that, it's probably already on its way to being indexed.

I was atually talking about older threads that users will never find searching because the title is way off. Or am I missing something?

[Brian Cummiskey]

If you can find it in google by searching for it, i wouldn't bother. Chances are the words are int he body elsewhere. I realize there's a lot of threads titled "help" and nothing more, but everything they need help with is in text on the page already.

you may see a little gain, but in my opionin, it's really not worth the data entry effort.