Question
Can I redirect users from my previous support website to Guide without affecting SEO?
Answer
To minimize the impact in SEO when you migrate to Guide, amend all the URL redirect directives against the hosting platform that is currently used for the website. This ensures that any of the old links that might be bookmarked, or linked in external websites are properly redirected to the new ones.
The redirect directives need to be amended on the old hosting side. Depending on the server type used for your previous help website, you can amend the .htaccess file and set a 301 redirect directives rule to the new help center.
Alternatively, apply rules at a URL individual level or for any requests to be redirected to the new pages. Create the articles first against the help center to apply redirect rules at an individual level.
For more information about what you need when you move your content to a new platform, review this external guide.
Once the redirect process has been implemented, use the Google Webmaster's tool Fetch as Google feature to help the new pages get crawled and indexed. This ensures that the new pages will be prompted in Google's search engine results page faster.
If you're looking for more documentation, check out the following: