Ok I have two questions regarding domains. 1) I have a Wordpress blog and a forum. My forums is listed in mysite.com/forums. When I had my site reviewed back in January, someone on the site mentioned that I should change the structure to forums.name of forum. What is the purpose of this and how do I go about that if my forum is a part of a site? 2) My current domain name has no relation to my site. It is about the Law of Attraction and it's name is in my siggy. I registered another more suitable (searchable) domain name. What to do next. How do I still maintain any traction I've gained thus far with getting cached using the current domain? Ok, so those were multiple part questions. Thanks a bunch.
1. If the content is already listed I would suggest to avoid the changes, in place try to add more fresh content. 2. You can do the 301 redirect.
1) The purpuse of this is Search engine optimization, as "forum" is more searched than "forums" Changing from a subdirectory to a sub domain is directed to users, as they better remember the subdomain than the directory. 2) Depends on what you are going (Brandability or SE positioning).
1) Did someone suggest to change it to - forums.sitename.com - forum.sitename.com --OR -- - sitename.com/forums - sitename.com/forum Whatsoever, these are two different things. Using a sub-domain is easier for people to access but then search engines treat it as a separate domain. While using it as a directory is difficult for people to access but then it increases the weightage of your domain. I suggest not to make any changes since you could lose the search rankings. 2) If I am not wrong, you are using a blog for the main domain, correct? The easiest way is to park the other domain you registered on top of the main domain and in WP, modify the settings and change it to the new domain. I think that will work.
It was suggested that I make it forums.sitename.com. Yes I am using a blog as my main domain. Thanks for the tip. Can you explain a little more how to configure the new domain in WP? I really appreciate your help. Thank you!
Well, I think its better that you keep your forum to its present case. Or if you want to move it to forums.sitename.com, then you can do that easily. Just go to your hosting control panel and setup a new domain forums. The folder forums will automatically be assigned to the new sub-domain. Since all the files are already present in forums folder, you just need to edit the config files to change the URL from sitename.com/forums to forums.sitename.com. You can contact vB and they will assist you. Once you have done that, do a wildcard redirection as below:- sitename.com/forums > forums.sitename.com Wildcard redirection ensure that each URL on sitename.com/forums is redirected to forums.sitename.com. That's easy. Assuming you will be parking the domain on top of the main domain -- OR -- you will be adding a addon domain, all you have to do is login to your WP installation, go to General Settings and edit the "Blog address (URL)". Also, check this url for more instructions: http://codex.wordpress.org/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory NOTE: Just exercise extreme caution when playing with the files. If in doubt, ask someone before making any changes. Or maybe you can open a support ticket at my site http://ruchie.com/support/contact/ and I will be in touch with you.
Thanks a bunch for taking the time out to explain this to me. I think I will leave the forums as is. No biggie. I will have to read up more on the domain name instructions though.