Opportunity knocked, and it was a dumbass webmeister (301 redirect)

S

SteveGG

New member
Nov 25, 2006
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Canada
[FONT='PrimaSans BT,Verdana,sans-serif']So today I get this email from the webmeister at a major institution that recently redesigned the Press Release section of their website...

" ...the links on your website referring to articles on our website are broken. Please update any existing links from <old PR section subdomain> to <new PR section folder on main domain>."


So not only did he not tell me which of my webpages now have broken - or at least incorrect - outbound links to their old PR section, but he also expects me to go looking for where those articles now appear (different urls) on his site to update my links with.

I suggested he consider doing 301 redirects from the old urls to the new versions - so inbound links resolve correctly - but apparently he doesn't know what I'm talking about, because he replied to that (a bit rudely) with the statement that they have 3000 of their new pages indexed on Google already... which has nothing to do with what I was talking about.

[/FONT][FONT='PrimaSans BT,Verdana,sans-serif']There must be 1000s of websites in the same postition as me - all their links to the old site's articles now redirect to the new main page instead.

Fortunately I was already intending to do a hyperlocal news website for an area that encompasses that institution... therefore, I think I'll dig up all the authority sites I can find that link to press releases on their old site - but now resolve to the main page - paste those original press releases onto my own website, then contact the webmeisters to point out their links are no longer correct, and provide them with a link to my site hosting the original article they wanted.

So originally I was going to clue him in to how 301 redirects would benefit their site, but now I see an opportunity to get some easy, great inbound links of my own. :)

Might be worth checking out any websites that announces a redesign, just to see how their old inbound links resolve. If they don't work like they use to - then contact those inbound sites' webmasters and give them a correct page on your website for them to link to instead.

...just had to rant, and no one I know offline would have a clue what I was talking about if I told them any of this. lol
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RockDiesel said:
lol webmeister lol
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Lol, Guessing not the same kind of Meister as these.

awsxvr.jpg
 
So you came across this because you were too lazy to change your links to the new pages on their site, and now you think you'll be able to convince other people to overcome their laziness and change their links to your site instead?
 
RockDiesel said:
lol webmeister lol
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Maybe that's Canadian slang..? :)

But as an aside, it's not like this is a new idea for gathering good links - finding broken links on authority sites, and suggesting those website owner fix them with a relevant link to your own website - but maybe a slight twist in that you can just keep an eye out for other authority, or merely very old, websites that have recently completed an extensive redesign.

My assumption would be that those types of sites know enough to ensure proper redirects, if they aren't keeping page locations the same, but these guys didn't. And the website is for an institution most everyone in my country would have heard about, so you never know when you could get lucky.
 
Unbelievable that YOU'D have to teach your webmaster HOW to do a 301 redirect. Personally, I'd find a webmaster who KNOWS how to manage your website!
 
abundantliving said:
Unbelievable that YOU'D have to teach your webmaster HOW to do a 301 redirect. Personally, I'd find a webmaster who KNOWS how to manage your website!
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Thanks for resurrecting a stupid dead thread with a comment that makes no sense.
 
^ --- Yeah! That!

But since it's apparently Easter and my thread has been brought back from the dead.. I missed this comment the first time around...

SniperRyan said:
So you came across this because you were too lazy to change your links to the new pages on their site, and now you think you'll be able to convince other people to overcome their laziness and change their links to your site instead?
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Good point. Although he notified me RIGHT after he redesigned their website, so there wasn't much time for me to have noticed anyway.

And since he didn't tell me where on my site the broken links were, or where the target pages had moved to, I'm going one step better and telling the other website owners which of their pages have broken links and where to send them for the same content on my site.

Plus I'm only targeting well ranked websites (incl edu's) where most webmasters typically give a rat's ass about having broken links, so I'm doing them a favor.

Therefore, not much time to do
+ in-content links from high ranked sites
= well worth the effort for me.
 
This is a pretty good tactic (if you're cool with being.. dishonest). I've e-mailed people in the past asking to "update" their links to point to my site instead of a competitors. You'd be surprised how often it worked for me. In my case, my competitor was a municipal government who later purchased my site.
 
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