Change url structure and keeping the social media likes/shares

[ShaqD]

Hi guys,

We're thinking of changing the url structure of the tutorials (we call it knowledgebase) section on our website. We want to make it shorter URL so it be closer to the TLD.

So, for the convenience we'll call them old page (www.domain.com/profiles/profile_id/kb/article_title) and new page (www.domain.com/kb/article_title)

What I'm looking to do is change the url structure but keep the likes/shares we got from facebook. I thought of two ways to do it and would love to hear what the community members thinks is better.

1. Use rel=canonical

I thought we might do a rel=canonical to the new page and add a "noindex" tag to the old page.

In that way, the users will still be able to reach the old page, but the juice will still link to the new page and the old pages will disappear from Google SERP and the new pages will start to appear.

I understand it will be pretty long process. But that's the only way likes will stay

2. Play with the og:url property

Do the 301 redirect to the new page, but changing the og:url property inside that page to the old page url. It's a bit more tricky but might work.

What do you think? Which way is better, or maybe there is a better way I'm not familiar with yet?

Thanks so much for your help!

Shaqd

[RMATVMC]

Shaqd

I have done this, although I am not familiar with the canonical method you mentioned. Social share counts are tied directly to a URL so if the structure of a URL changes at all the old count will be attributed with the shares. You can create a custom social share button that pulls the data from the old pre  url structure change. Mike King has an awesome post about how to do that here (which is what I believe you are referring to with the og: url propterty?): http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2172926/How-to-Maintain-Social-Shares-After-a-Site-Migration 

You can read a thread where he and I discussed it here: http://a-moz.groupbuyseo.org/community/q/preserving-social-shares-through-url-changes

His method works.