Recommendations for redirecting a large website to a new website?

Question

I have a clients website terminating shortly in 2 weeks and being replaced by a new website (new domain) that has already been live for a couple of months. The plan for the 301 redirects was intended to be gradual over a few months due to the size of the site, however due to technical difficulties around the URL structure they could not take place.

It is a mammoth, multi-lingual website with up 300,000 indexed pages. The plan is to implement bulk redirects to the relevant folders on the new site, however this has to take place with a week. I have heard Matt Cutts once say that anything over 500 redirects gets flagged with his team as potentially spammy.

I'd be grateful if anybody had any advice regarding this task and if what I'm doing could be dangerous with consequences?

Answer 1

There is function in the Google Webmaster Tools to change the domain of site (= move). There also is an accompanying article that may help you.

In short it says you have to redirect "as good as possible". If not every single page is possible, then at least redirect to correct folder/category on your new site. Also use the named function in the webmaster tools and create and add a new sitemap.xml there as well.

Using several hundred or even thousand separate redirects is also not good for the speed of the website. So personally, I would create no more than 100 redirect rules to avoid problems. You may also use a customized 404 page and add a special hint according the new site/site structure there (with some links to the most important pages).