Merged Threads Redirects

[SECTalk.com]

Hello,

I have noticed when merging a thread or multiple threads, that the old links will not redirect to the new one. Say for example we have Thread A and B, both quite old and indexed in search engines. When we merge B into A, the link for B does not take you to the new thread and it rightfully should.

For an example, search "Fire Rick Stansbury" in Google, and the first result (it is right now the first result anyway), links to our site, but once clicked on, it does not take you to a valid thread.

I feel like this feature would help some SEO issues as we have a lot of merged threads and many of the older links just stop working altogether. Something similar to the current redirect topics left in forums from where a thread has been moved would do nicely.

Thanks for your consideration and I apologize if this issue has already been brought up/implemented elsewhere.

Thanks again.

[Cyrem]

Ehh... this would mean IP.B would have to store all the old topic links and then new redirect links adding yet more unnecessary data into the database.

Do not want.

[SECTalk.com]

I think that is a small price to pay to continue to have use of those old links, especially when they are well indexed and rank highly as some of ours (and I'm sure others') do. And it's not like you would double the entries in the topic table, I mean realistically, how many of your topics are merged? 5%? 10%? It would hardly be a drain on server resources.

And of course, I'm sure it could be an option for admins to choose on a site per site basis. I really do think many boards could benefit from this and it would greatly improve the overall SEO appeal of IPB which is an area where it has a (rightfully or not) sort of less than perfect reputation.

[Cyrem]

SEO wise, it would help to keep links valid, however search engines will eventually re-index the new merged topic and things will be pretty again. I guess it would be fine if it was time based... such as after x days removed the temporary link. That way it give the SE's time to refresh.

It won't take up much space yes, but I still try to keep my DB as lean as possible.

[SECTalk.com]

SEO wise, it would help to keep links valid, however search engines will eventually re-index the new merged topic and things will be pretty again. I guess it would be fine if it was time based... such as after x days removed the temporary link. That way it give the SE's time to refresh.

It won't take up much space yes, but I still try to keep my DB as lean as possible.

Yes they will eventually reindex, but if a link just goes to the invalid thread page, it will be more difficult to reindex.

Again, an option would be the best thing, and perhaps the time limit option is the best way to approach this. But a simple on/off switch would work just fine for most I presume.

[Feld0]

This isn't only good for SEO... sure, search engines will eventually re-index the content. But often, users post links to threads that get merged several hours or days later - these links will remain broken and it's unrealistic to go trudging through every post that might have had a link to the original thread - let alone contacting other websites that might have linked to it in the meantime. It would be a significant usability improvement as well.