Will it ruin my well established URLs/webpage names and links?

  • Thank you for this wonderful plug in to convert an old html website to wordpress. I have a html website which has great Google rankings and is often referenced by other websites.

    What I am worried about is that if I use the plug-in HTML Import2, will I end up with new URLs for each of my pages, which means I lose all my google rankings and of course the links from other websites.

    Does it mean I will then have to create redirects for every page – and my website has 300 pages!!! Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Thread Starter rameshmehay

    (@rameshmehay)

    https://gp-training.net for those of you who would like to see my old (but rather outdated looking) website.

    I was able to retain all my established URLs. It’s been 3 years now, so no, I don’t remember what I did exactly, but I did.

    gyjafar

    (@ghulamjafar2)

    @rameshmehay I see “404 Nothing Found” at your home page.
    and “Oops! That page can’t be found.” when visiting your other indexed pages from google.
    So you have ruined your HTML site.
    I hope you have a backup.
    I am also going to try this Plugin.

    Thread Starter rameshmehay

    (@rameshmehay)

    @ghulamjafar2

    Thanks for your reply. Luckily, I do have backups. And NO – you’ll be glad to hear that I have NOT ruined my website. Yes, you do have to play with the plugin several times to properly understand it. After playing with the settings, it did a good 90% of the job. I just have to now spend a bit of time just tidying it all up – which I plan to do in the next week.

    Thanks for your concern though.

    The only thing to remember for the rest of you….
    if your page is my.website.com/aboutus.htm – the .htm suffix will be removed from all pages and the rest of the URL kept the same. Does anyone know how you can do a BATCH redirect rather than painfully doing it for every page. I think my website has 200 pages of content information! I believe HTML IMPORT2 gives you a list of the converted pages from old to new – but a) I don’t know where to access it and b) I don’t know how to use it to do a batch redirect using the redirect plug in it recommends.

    I would use a utility such as https://localwp.com/ to create a local new WP Website, and test the import plugin to see how it behaves.

    Thread Starter rameshmehay

    (@rameshmehay)

    @iantresman thank you so much for your post. i am a bit of a novice but help explain how localwp.com would help? Isn’t it just a hosting platform to aid easy innstallation of WordPress?

    I already have hosting space with Siteground – where I can make unlimited websites, with easy WP instal using control panel’s Softaculous.

    What I want to know is how to do the redirects or any other way of batch converting an html site to wordpress (but I think HTML IMPORT2 is the only thing available, but not currently maintained).

    So please help me to understand how localwp.com would help?
    And thanks x

    Yes, localwp.com lets you create a local fresh WP installation. You could create a new install on Siteground, but I find a local site is quicker to setup, edit and delete. A fresh site just lets you test plugins without it endangering an existing site.

    HTML Import 2 documentation seems to suggest that it can create a list of redirects, but for use in an htacess file; but starting with this list, you may be able to edit this list so you can import it into a plugin such as the Redirection Plugin.

    A new WP install on localwp.com or Siteground will let you try this safely.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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