How fussy is Google?

[Madeleine]

On my old site I have page URLs something like this 'MyTownEvents'. On the new site I cannot use caps in the URLs so it's 'mytownevents'. Is that going to send Google screaming off a cliff, taking my website with it?
This is nerve-wracking! I did this once before and some of my pages that had great traffic disappeared. Newbie mistake. But, now I know better and I'm nervous!

 

[Joey Camb]

it is supposed to be ok - but remember now google is supposed to be putting more emphasis onto content

 

[EmptyNest]

It shouldn't make a difference whether it is caps or lowercase. It is seen as the same url I believe. Oh I see what you mean now...spacing in between. I will look at your site and see if i can find a way.

 

[Scott]

It is decidedly NOT OK.
Your page (MyTownEvents) has page rank (status) with Google. The new page (mytownevents) has none. There is a correct way to transfer the status from the old to the new, but it is a little bit painful. Ideally you want to keep the full URL the same. If you can't do that, then you should redirect traffic from the old page to the new.
Google has guidelines for this. In essence, you need to have the old page return a signal and code to the browser, sending it to the new page. This is known as a 301 redirect, as 301 is the code that is sent, saying, in essence, "this has moved permanently."
Detailed instructions from Google are here: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93633
At the end, it says you'll need access to your web server's .htaccess file. If you are using WordPress, there is also a plugin that will handle it instead.

 

[Madeleine]

It is decidedly NOT OK.
Your page (MyTownEvents) has page rank (status) with Google. The new page (mytownevents) has none. There is a correct way to transfer the status from the old to the new, but it is a little bit painful. Ideally you want to keep the full URL the same. If you can't do that, then you should redirect traffic from the old page to the new.
Google has guidelines for this. In essence, you need to have the old page return a signal and code to the browser, sending it to the new page. This is known as a 301 redirect, as 301 is the code that is sent, saying, in essence, "this has moved permanently."
Detailed instructions from Google are here: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93633
At the end, it says you'll need access to your web server's .htaccess file. If you are using WordPress, there is also a plugin that will handle it instead..

Thanks! I thought it might be a problem.
For how long do I have to redirect traffic?

 

[EmptyNest]

It is decidedly NOT OK.
Your page (MyTownEvents) has page rank (status) with Google. The new page (mytownevents) has none. There is a correct way to transfer the status from the old to the new, but it is a little bit painful. Ideally you want to keep the full URL the same. If you can't do that, then you should redirect traffic from the old page to the new.
Google has guidelines for this. In essence, you need to have the old page return a signal and code to the browser, sending it to the new page. This is known as a 301 redirect, as 301 is the code that is sent, saying, in essence, "this has moved permanently."
Detailed instructions from Google are here: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93633
At the end, it says you'll need access to your web server's .htaccess file. If you are using WordPress, there is also a plugin that will handle it instead..

Thanks for the correction

Is this the plug in you were referring to?
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/

 

[EmptyNest]

It is decidedly NOT OK.
Your page (MyTownEvents) has page rank (status) with Google. The new page (mytownevents) has none. There is a correct way to transfer the status from the old to the new, but it is a little bit painful. Ideally you want to keep the full URL the same. If you can't do that, then you should redirect traffic from the old page to the new.
Google has guidelines for this. In essence, you need to have the old page return a signal and code to the browser, sending it to the new page. This is known as a 301 redirect, as 301 is the code that is sent, saying, in essence, "this has moved permanently."
Detailed instructions from Google are here: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93633
At the end, it says you'll need access to your web server's .htaccess file. If you are using WordPress, there is also a plugin that will handle it instead..

Thanks! I thought it might be a problem.
For how long do I have to redirect traffic?
.

I think redirects are permanent. If you look in your control panel. There is an icon I believe to set up redirects if you want to do it that way. You will then have to set up redirects for all your pages when you get the new WP site live because all file names are different now.

 

[Madeleine]

It is decidedly NOT OK.
Your page (MyTownEvents) has page rank (status) with Google. The new page (mytownevents) has none. There is a correct way to transfer the status from the old to the new, but it is a little bit painful. Ideally you want to keep the full URL the same. If you can't do that, then you should redirect traffic from the old page to the new.
Google has guidelines for this. In essence, you need to have the old page return a signal and code to the browser, sending it to the new page. This is known as a 301 redirect, as 301 is the code that is sent, saying, in essence, "this has moved permanently."
Detailed instructions from Google are here: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93633
At the end, it says you'll need access to your web server's .htaccess file. If you are using WordPress, there is also a plugin that will handle it instead..

Thanks! I thought it might be a problem.
For how long do I have to redirect traffic?
.

I think redirects are permanent. If you look in your control panel. There is an icon I believe to set up redirects if you want to do it that way. You will then have to set up redirects for all your pages when you get the new WP site live because all file names are different now.
.

I just went in and changed as many as I could to the old names. The old ones using caps are the problem children. But, there are tutorials on what to do if not HOW to do it. So far only 8 pages need help. The others are mostly single words and I didn't start off with those in caps.
Of course, now I have to figure out what links I broke...
All in a day's work... did I say I'd be done in April? Maybe late April...

 

[Arks]

Of topic of page traffic transfer, but I've noticed over the years that with home pages case doesn't matter (in typing in a web address), but with with other pages case does matter.
For instance, you can advertise your web address as MyGuestHouse.com on your business card (the caps make it easier for people to read and remember) and whether they enter MyGuestHouse.com or myguesthouse.com in their browser, they'll make it to your site.
But if you have another page, named MyGuestHouse.com/OurBreakfasts.html, they can't get there by typing myguesthouse.com/ourbreakfasts.html because case matters for pages beyond the home page.
I used to blame Bill Gates for stuff like this, but he's turned into such a nice guy, I don't have anybody to blame anymore.

 

[JBloggs]

Love the title of this thread.
How fussy? They made me fussy today.

 

[EmptyNest]

Love the title of this thread.
How fussy? They made me fussy today..

yeah I guess that was what I was first "trying to say" badly. So how are you made fussy today?

 

[JBloggs]

Love the title of this thread.
How fussy? They made me fussy today..

yeah I guess that was what I was first "trying to say" badly. So how are you made fussy today?
.

yeah I guess that was what I was first "trying to say" badly. So how are you made fussy today?

The usual google on a major holiday, they could have put a bunny there, but what they did put outraged and offended millions. Including me. But we can't discuss that here, so just go to google.
If they had put NOTHING there I would not have minded.
But they tend to do this on all major American holidays, patriotic and religious. No matter what anyone says TODAY is still Easter and children everywhere are hunting for Easter eggs and having a family supper together. Maybe even a little chocolate.

 

[EmptyNest]

Love the title of this thread.
How fussy? They made me fussy today..

yeah I guess that was what I was first "trying to say" badly. So how are you made fussy today?
.

yeah I guess that was what I was first "trying to say" badly. So how are you made fussy today?

The usual google on a major holiday, they could have put a bunny there, but what they did put outraged and offended millions. Including me. But we can't discuss that here, so just go to google.
If they had put NOTHING there I would not have minded.
But they tend to do this on all major American holidays, patriotic and religious. No matter what anyone says TODAY is still Easter and children everywhere are hunting for Easter eggs and having a family supper together. Maybe even a little chocolate.
.

HUH???
See I never go to Google. I just type in my search in the address bar.

 

[Penelope]

Love the title of this thread.
How fussy? They made me fussy today..

yeah I guess that was what I was first "trying to say" badly. So how are you made fussy today?
.

yeah I guess that was what I was first "trying to say" badly. So how are you made fussy today?

The usual google on a major holiday, they could have put a bunny there, but what they did put outraged and offended millions. Including me. But we can't discuss that here, so just go to google.
If they had put NOTHING there I would not have minded.
But they tend to do this on all major American holidays, patriotic and religious. No matter what anyone says TODAY is still Easter and children everywhere are hunting for Easter eggs and having a family supper together. Maybe even a little chocolate.
.

yeah I guess that was what I was first "trying to say" badly. So how are you made fussy today?

The usual google on a major holiday, they could have put a bunny there, but what they did put outraged and offended millions. Including me. But we can't discuss that here, so just go to google.
If they had put NOTHING there I would not have minded.
But they tend to do this on all major American holidays, patriotic and religious. No matter what anyone says TODAY is still Easter and children everywhere are hunting for Easter eggs and having a family supper together. Maybe even a little chocolate.

I was fussed by this, too. I hear ya, LOUD and CLEAR

 

[swirt]

Of topic of page traffic transfer, but I've noticed over the years that with home pages case doesn't matter (in typing in a web address), but with with other pages case does matter.
For instance, you can advertise your web address as MyGuestHouse.com on your business card (the caps make it easier for people to read and remember) and whether they enter MyGuestHouse.com or myguesthouse.com in their browser, they'll make it to your site.
But if you have another page, named MyGuestHouse.com/OurBreakfasts.html, they can't get there by typing myguesthouse.com/ourbreakfasts.html because case matters for pages beyond the home page.
I used to blame Bill Gates for stuff like this, but he's turned into such a nice guy, I don't have anybody to blame anymore..

The domain name is not case sensitive, but subsequent pages within the site may be. Example: Apache ( a common web server) is case sensitive out of the box. So a request for mydomain.com/pageone serves up a different page than mydomain.com/PageOne The server treats it as a separate page, so Google treats it as a separate page. So it is not so much a question of, "is Google case sensitive?", but it is more a question of "is your web server case sensitive?".
A web server can be made to be either case tolerant meaning the two requests for the page above would return the same page but keep the caps, or it can be made case insensitive , which means it will automatically force/re-write the page request to be lower case. If your server is case insensitive, when you type in request with some caps in place, you will actually see the caps become lower case.
As Scott mentioned above, a 301 redirect can solve this fairly easily (better with a 301 redirect with mod-rewrite),However that is still a single page fix. It is better to make the web server case insensitive if you can. That is what keeps your PR from being split if someone links to you with caps in the address.

 

[OnTheShore]

Of topic of page traffic transfer, but I've noticed over the years that with home pages case doesn't matter (in typing in a web address), but with with other pages case does matter.
For instance, you can advertise your web address as MyGuestHouse.com on your business card (the caps make it easier for people to read and remember) and whether they enter MyGuestHouse.com or myguesthouse.com in their browser, they'll make it to your site.
But if you have another page, named MyGuestHouse.com/OurBreakfasts.html, they can't get there by typing myguesthouse.com/ourbreakfasts.html because case matters for pages beyond the home page.
I used to blame Bill Gates for stuff like this, but he's turned into such a nice guy, I don't have anybody to blame anymore..

The domain name is not case sensitive, but subsequent pages within the site may be. Example: Apache ( a common web server) is case sensitive out of the box. So a request for mydomain.com/pageone serves up a different page than mydomain.com/PageOne The server treats it as a separate page, so Google treats it as a separate page. So it is not so much a question of, "is Google case sensitive?", but it is more a question of "is your web server case sensitive?".
A web server can be made to be either case tolerant meaning the two requests for the page above would return the same page but keep the caps, or it can be made case insensitive , which means it will automatically force/re-write the page request to be lower case. If your server is case insensitive, when you type in request with some caps in place, you will actually see the caps become lower case.
As Scott mentioned above, a 301 redirect can solve this fairly easily (better with a 301 redirect with mod-rewrite),However that is still a single page fix. It is better to make the web server case insensitive if you can. That is what keeps your PR from being split if someone links to you with caps in the address.
.

Wouldn't the case sensitivity depend on the host computer's file system rather than the server software?

 

[Madeleine]

Of topic of page traffic transfer, but I've noticed over the years that with home pages case doesn't matter (in typing in a web address), but with with other pages case does matter.
For instance, you can advertise your web address as MyGuestHouse.com on your business card (the caps make it easier for people to read and remember) and whether they enter MyGuestHouse.com or myguesthouse.com in their browser, they'll make it to your site.
But if you have another page, named MyGuestHouse.com/OurBreakfasts.html, they can't get there by typing myguesthouse.com/ourbreakfasts.html because case matters for pages beyond the home page.
I used to blame Bill Gates for stuff like this, but he's turned into such a nice guy, I don't have anybody to blame anymore..

The domain name is not case sensitive, but subsequent pages within the site may be. Example: Apache ( a common web server) is case sensitive out of the box. So a request for mydomain.com/pageone serves up a different page than mydomain.com/PageOne The server treats it as a separate page, so Google treats it as a separate page. So it is not so much a question of, "is Google case sensitive?", but it is more a question of "is your web server case sensitive?".
A web server can be made to be either case tolerant meaning the two requests for the page above would return the same page but keep the caps, or it can be made case insensitive , which means it will automatically force/re-write the page request to be lower case. If your server is case insensitive, when you type in request with some caps in place, you will actually see the caps become lower case.
As Scott mentioned above, a 301 redirect can solve this fairly easily (better with a 301 redirect with mod-rewrite),However that is still a single page fix. It is better to make the web server case insensitive if you can. That is what keeps your PR from being split if someone links to you with caps in the address.
.

So, the way I would know that is to try to view someone else's site that is on the same server (webhost) to see what I get if I put in caps into a URL I know is lower case? No, I wouldn't know that would I? I have to contact the webhost to ask.

 

[swirt]

Of topic of page traffic transfer, but I've noticed over the years that with home pages case doesn't matter (in typing in a web address), but with with other pages case does matter.
For instance, you can advertise your web address as MyGuestHouse.com on your business card (the caps make it easier for people to read and remember) and whether they enter MyGuestHouse.com or myguesthouse.com in their browser, they'll make it to your site.
But if you have another page, named MyGuestHouse.com/OurBreakfasts.html, they can't get there by typing myguesthouse.com/ourbreakfasts.html because case matters for pages beyond the home page.
I used to blame Bill Gates for stuff like this, but he's turned into such a nice guy, I don't have anybody to blame anymore..

The domain name is not case sensitive, but subsequent pages within the site may be. Example: Apache ( a common web server) is case sensitive out of the box. So a request for mydomain.com/pageone serves up a different page than mydomain.com/PageOne The server treats it as a separate page, so Google treats it as a separate page. So it is not so much a question of, "is Google case sensitive?", but it is more a question of "is your web server case sensitive?".
A web server can be made to be either case tolerant meaning the two requests for the page above would return the same page but keep the caps, or it can be made case insensitive , which means it will automatically force/re-write the page request to be lower case. If your server is case insensitive, when you type in request with some caps in place, you will actually see the caps become lower case.
As Scott mentioned above, a 301 redirect can solve this fairly easily (better with a 301 redirect with mod-rewrite),However that is still a single page fix. It is better to make the web server case insensitive if you can. That is what keeps your PR from being split if someone links to you with caps in the address.
.

Wouldn't the case sensitivity depend on the host computer's file system rather than the server software?
.

Wouldn't the case sensitivity depend on the host computer's file system rather than the server software?

This is kind of a moot point. A linux based machine has a case sensitive file system. No real way around that. But what controls how it behaves when it serves files to the web is the server software and its configuration.

 

[swirt]

Of topic of page traffic transfer, but I've noticed over the years that with home pages case doesn't matter (in typing in a web address), but with with other pages case does matter.
For instance, you can advertise your web address as MyGuestHouse.com on your business card (the caps make it easier for people to read and remember) and whether they enter MyGuestHouse.com or myguesthouse.com in their browser, they'll make it to your site.
But if you have another page, named MyGuestHouse.com/OurBreakfasts.html, they can't get there by typing myguesthouse.com/ourbreakfasts.html because case matters for pages beyond the home page.
I used to blame Bill Gates for stuff like this, but he's turned into such a nice guy, I don't have anybody to blame anymore..

The domain name is not case sensitive, but subsequent pages within the site may be. Example: Apache ( a common web server) is case sensitive out of the box. So a request for mydomain.com/pageone serves up a different page than mydomain.com/PageOne The server treats it as a separate page, so Google treats it as a separate page. So it is not so much a question of, "is Google case sensitive?", but it is more a question of "is your web server case sensitive?".
A web server can be made to be either case tolerant meaning the two requests for the page above would return the same page but keep the caps, or it can be made case insensitive , which means it will automatically force/re-write the page request to be lower case. If your server is case insensitive, when you type in request with some caps in place, you will actually see the caps become lower case.
As Scott mentioned above, a 301 redirect can solve this fairly easily (better with a 301 redirect with mod-rewrite),However that is still a single page fix. It is better to make the web server case insensitive if you can. That is what keeps your PR from being split if someone links to you with caps in the address.
.

So, the way I would know that is to try to view someone else's site that is on the same server (webhost) to see what I get if I put in caps into a URL I know is lower case? No, I wouldn't know that would I? I have to contact the webhost to ask.
.

So, the way I would know that is to try to view someone else's site that is on the same server (webhost) to see what I get if I put in caps into a URL I know is lower case? No, I wouldn't know that would I? I have to contact the webhost to ask.

No, the way you would know is to check it on your server. Go to a page that you know is working, then swap in a cap somewhere in the path.
If it gives you an page not found (404 error) then you know the current configuration is case sensitive. (worst)
If it delivers the same page, but the cap remains in the path, then you know it is case insensitve. (better)
If it delivers the same page and cap converts to a lower case, then you know it is case insensitive with a url re-write in place. (Best)

 

[Scott]

It is decidedly NOT OK.
Your page (MyTownEvents) has page rank (status) with Google. The new page (mytownevents) has none. There is a correct way to transfer the status from the old to the new, but it is a little bit painful. Ideally you want to keep the full URL the same. If you can't do that, then you should redirect traffic from the old page to the new.
Google has guidelines for this. In essence, you need to have the old page return a signal and code to the browser, sending it to the new page. This is known as a 301 redirect, as 301 is the code that is sent, saying, in essence, "this has moved permanently."
Detailed instructions from Google are here: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93633
At the end, it says you'll need access to your web server's .htaccess file. If you are using WordPress, there is also a plugin that will handle it instead..

Thanks for the correction

Is this the plug in you were referring to?
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/
.

The one I currently use is called Safe Redirect Manager, which seems to do the job quite well.