HELP PLEASE: Can I do the following to get back the link juice this site once had?

[magentawave]

I rebuilt an old html site last year. The problem is that I (like an IDIOT!) forgot to tell the guy I hired to use the old urls - thus resulting in the loss of many years of backlinks, and PR, etc. Yes, I know I was STOOPID, but this is what I'm wondering...

1) Does a tool exist where I can paste in all my old urls to see if there are still backlinks to them?

2) I can get my old urls from the WayBackMachine and then create redirects from the old urls to the new urls. So my questions are - would that succeed in getting back the link juice I had with those old urls...even though its been 14 months since I switched over to the new urls?

Thanks
Steve

[magentawave]

Anyone, please?

[JamesGw]

Yes, using 301 redirects from your old pages to your new ones should be effective. I'm not sure if there's a "time limit" or not on this, though.

[SEOBestTips]

301 redirects will help transfer "some" of the link juice and weight, but sadly you will still be missing a lot of your original backlink power. I'd look into getting back on the same urls/permalink structures personally, I know this could take massive time and effort

[TheKeys]

It will only help a little bit from here on out. Unfortunately time is a huge factor so you will just have to see. I would suggest building backlinks for what you do have now.

[magentawave]

Thanks all for taking the time to reply.

A few more questions please...

1) Can anyone suggest a tool (preferably free) where I can paste the OLD urls in to see if anyone is still linking to them?

2) I assume if no one is still linking to the old urls then using 301 redirects wouldn't be worth doing, right?

3) Are you suggesting that I replace the new urls with the old ones even though its been about 14 months since I had the old urls?

Thanks again.

Steve

Originally Posted by SEOBestTips

301 redirects will help transfer "some" of the link juice and weight, but sadly you will still be missing a lot of your original backlink power. I'd look into getting back on the same urls/permalink structures personally, I know this could take massive time and effort

[SEOBestTips]

How much have you changed/updated your content? If your site is very much improved with new content and gaining page rank/trust on the current linking platform than it would be wise to just start your linking campaign over.

14months is a long time no doubt, 301 is the best route to take. You could use backlinkwatch.com on each url, see what your actually missing or not. Yahoo Site explorer or Google webmaster tools also tell you which deep pages are being linked to as well as the overall "indexed" backlinks.

[razorhound]

Originally Posted by magentawave

Thanks all for taking the time to reply.

A few more questions please...

1) Can anyone suggest a tool (preferably free) where I can paste the OLD urls in to see if anyone is still linking to them?

2) I assume if no one is still linking to the old urls then using 301 redirects wouldn't be worth doing, right?

3) Are you suggesting that I replace the new urls with the old ones even though its been about 14 months since I had the old urls?

Thanks again.

Steve

Chances are you still have some links from the old URL. Try to use SEO spyglass free version and analyse it or use Majesticseo to check how many deleted.

[magentawave]

The content hasn't been changed much at all since I rebuilt the site last year. Its an 8 year old html site.

Originally Posted by SEOBestTips

How much have you changed/updated your content? If your site is very much improved with new content and gaining page rank/trust on the current linking platform than it would be wise to just start your linking campaign over.

14months is a long time no doubt, 301 is the best route to take. You could use backlinkwatch.com on each url, see what your actually missing or not. Yahoo Site explorer or Google webmaster tools also tell you which deep pages are being linked to as well as the overall "indexed" backlinks.

[LucySands]

I guess you can check them using Google Webmaster tools