[xenite]

Originally Posted by malderforoz

Xenite Hi, thanks for your answer

I have read that there is a program that generates rules .htaccess and php script that locates the ids of the table for accurate redirection of the old message to the new message

That sounds really scary, but unless I can see it I can't evaluate it.

The thing with .htaccess is that the file is checked for each and every file that is fetched from your server. The server may cache the file in memory but if you load it up with thousands of redirects you're going to see your server performance slow down considerably.

Just create an explanatory page and redirect all the old URLs there. I understand your concern about losing search engine referral traffic but you have made the change and no matter what you do there will be consequences.

Depending on how large your forum is it may take only a couple of months (maybe six) for the search engines to get everything sorted out. But you'll never see exactly the same kind of traffic going forward because you changed the mix in a big way.

Just grow your traffic from where you are. Trying to save traffic you just walked away from or lost is never part of search engine optimization.