Moving from Windows to Linux - Need Help Redirecting Pages for Search Engines

Hi,

I have a client who has to move their site from a windows server to a linux server. The currect pages are in simple HTML with .asp file extesnions. When the new pages are moved to the Linux server they will of course change their file names. The site's pages currently hold positions in the search engines so could somone explain exactly how I can make sure the search engines adopt the new pages (the new pages will be the same but with different file names)?

I'm a little confused about whether I should be using 302 redirects - I've never done this before. Maintaining search engine positions as much as possible is extremely important.

Is there a step by step guide I should follow? Can someone post one here? How long might it take for the search engines to pick up the new pages and replace the old ones in thier indexes?

I read in the Google webmaster help section about 302 redirects but I'm not sure if this is the best way for our situation. I also read through the forums but I'm still unsure. I've read about using the .htaccess file but need to be sure I have everything prepared.

All help is appreciated

 

Not sure, but I will say that .htaccess does not work on windows servers, but only linux servers so that won't work for you.

 

Yes, you are correct but perhaps I wasn't clear; the site is going to be moved from a windows server to a linux server. When the site is hosted on the linux server, do i need to use .htaccess to redirect to the new pages? How do I do this?

Thanks

 

Can anybody advise? Thanks

 

Make sure you use the same filenames, only changing from .asp to say .html or .php or something. i.e. keep all the structure the same. Then you'll need to create a .htaccess file in the root directory that does a 301 or permanent redirect. The 301 should just look for {anything}.asp and do a 301 to {anything}.php.

Sorry, I don't know enough about mod_rewrite to give you the specific commands for the .htaccess, but that's the basics of what you need to do. Some googling on mod_rewrite should solve your problem and give you the commands to put into the .htaccess file.

 

Thanks Wheel. Sounds good to me. Can anyone tell me how I write this into my .htaccess file?

 

Try posting to the apache forum here. I believe you'll find it's a straightforward 4 line bit of code. Unfortunately mod_rewrite is both complex and powerful, so you end up needing a phd to even use it for something as simple as this. So those of us that use it rarely are stuck begging from the experts who get tired of coughing up lines of code for the same basic problem over and over .