Hi All, I have a website which ranks pretty well for a few search phrases but have come to the point of doing a redesign and need to move hosting companies as the new site uses PHP rather than ASP. So far I have registered the .net domain version of our site with the new host and built the site but now need to migrate the old site over smoothly. So my question is, to avoid any upset to our current rankings what is the best way to go about moving the .com domain over to the new host and could we then partner that .com domain with the new .net domain? Thanks for any help.
I would stick to the .com domain but thats just my idea. Then secondly did you change your page ulrs?
Well I do want to stick to the .com but the new site is setup on the .net domain so I want to move the .com if possible and associate it with the .net domain. I'm just after the smotthest way to do it without upsetting my rankings or customers. I had no choice but to change the urls as the new pages are .php and the old ones are .asp I did try and keep the basic structure and page names the same though, just the extension which had to change.
If your new site is ready to take over, then I would think the best bet is to point the .com address at the new site. Any pages with new names should be permanently redirected to the new page. I've read that using permanent redirects will work out ranking-wise, but I'd be loathe to experiment with a site that makes money. One thing you can do is keep the same names on your php server by using a forcetype in your .htaccess file so any pages with asp extensions get treated as php pages.
Some interesting info, thanks So I could leave my .com address with the current registrar but put a permanent redirect to the .net address? Would visitors still see the site as the .com when browsing though?
What I would do, is point the .com dns entries to your new host. Set up your web server to handle both the .com and .net address if you are using name based virtual hosting. This sounds a little confusing, but if you don't understand what I'm talking about, call up your webhosts tech support and they should fill you in on everything you need to do to migrate the domain. Just to be safe, I'd post what they say here and we can make sure they are giving you the right advice. (it's late for me, otherwise I'd be a little more helpful)