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What to do after moving your site

Discussion in 'Site & Server Administration' started by johncr, Sep 11, 2004.

0
  1. #1
    Is it possible to ask Google to drop a page or a whole site's URL after moving to another server?

    For the first time in 6 years I have moved a site from a free to a payed server and now there are lots of broken links, well not only at Google but at Lycos and MSN as well.
     
    johncr, Sep 11, 2004 IP
  2. Dji-man

    Dji-man Peon

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    #2
    You don't have to ask google, just tell its robots you've moved using a an html 301 permanent redirect code in your .htaccess file on your old server pointing to your new site. But make sure it's a 301 though and not a 302 (temporary redirect), otherwise you may end up banned, just like business.com

    see webpronews.com/insiderreports/searchinsider/wpn-49-20040908WhyBusinesscomWasBanned.html
     
    Dji-man, Sep 11, 2004 IP
  3. johncr

    johncr Peon

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    #3
    I can't do that in the free server.
     
    johncr, Sep 11, 2004 IP
  4. minstrel

    minstrel Illustrious Member

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    #4
    Do you still have access to that free server site? If so, the following, although laborious, will work:

    1. Create pages for each of the original pages on your site (i.e., same filename and subdirectory as applicable) containg the following code:
    <HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT="10; URL=http://www.newsite.com/newpage.html">
<TITLE>This page has moved</TITLE>
</head>
<BODY>
<P>This Page Has Moved<BR>
Please update your bookmarks to 
<A href="http://www.newsite.com/newpage.html">http://www.newsite.com/newpage.html</A>
</p>
</body>
</html>
    Code (markup):
    This will preserve any PR until you can get all your backlinks updated:see #2. As an alternative (not as good but faster), if the free server allows you to specify a custom error page (doubtful), you can direct all errors to that page, e.g., error404.html, and place that redirect above to your home page on the new site. Note: that "10" in 
    <META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT="10;
    Code (markup):
    refers to the number of seconds before the page redirects to your new site. Don't set it to less than 10, first, because you want human visitors people to make note of the fact that you've moved (and the link is there for them to redirect sooner if they wish), and, second, because it has been suggested that shorter durations may be interpreted by search engines as attempted cloaking/spoofing.

    2. Now the slowest part: go to Google, Yahoo, Alltheweb, etc., etc., and find all the backlinks you can. Go to those pages and contact the webmasters to inform them that your site has moved and ask them to update their links. Wait one month. Repeat for all backlinks not yet updated. Repeat at monthly intervals for about 6 months - most of the sites should have updated your links by then and by that time any previous PR should have transferred to the new site.
     
    minstrel, Sep 12, 2004 IP
  5. johncr

    johncr Peon

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    #5
    Thanks minstrel for your advice. Fortunately I still have access to the free site so I uploaded all pages again. According to your suggestions I have modified some key pages hoping they don't realize I'm moving, at least for a while.
     
    johncr, Sep 12, 2004 IP
  6. Dji-man

    Dji-man Peon

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    #6
     
    Dji-man, Sep 12, 2004 IP
  7. minstrel

    minstrel Illustrious Member

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    #7
    You missed Part 2 of my post.

    Part 1 only takes care of human visitors who find your site through the search engines. It also provides spiders with a link to the new page so actually using your "noindex,nofollow' tag is a bad idea.

    Part 2 is equally important: As long as your backlinks keep pointing to the old URL, any PR accruing to your pages will continue to list the old pages -- that's why it's essential that you begin your email campaign to have those expired links edited to point to the new pages.
     
    minstrel, Sep 12, 2004 IP
  8. Dji-man

    Dji-man Peon

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    #8
    Minstrel,

    I agree with you with e-mailing the backlinks' to tell them about the new URL. But that depends on how many you have. It's not really feasible in my case, there are simply too many. Many are old sites that haven't been updated in years.

    BTW it's noindex, FOLLOW, noarchive.

    I'm open to all suggestions to get rid of the old URL on Yahoo and other SE without touching anything on the server. (it's really off limits for me, don't ask why)
     
    Dji-man, Sep 12, 2004 IP
  9. minstrel

    minstrel Illustrious Member

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    #9
    So it is... I read that too quickly in the heat of pretending I could multitask. My apologies. The truth is I suck at multitasking but I just can't admit it to myself yet...

    Which makes me wonder if I misinterpreted the initial post as well....

    Johncr: when you moved your site from a free server, I assumed that the URL also changed, for example from something like www.geocities.com/johncr/index.html to something like www.johncr.com -- was that a correct assumption?
     
    minstrel, Sep 12, 2004 IP
  10. johncr

    johncr Peon

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    #10
    Yes. You are correct. I moved from a free server to a paid one using my own domain.
     
    johncr, Sep 13, 2004 IP
  11. minstrel

    minstrel Illustrious Member

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    #11
    Okay, thanks for confirming that. In that case, the strategy I suggested will work.
     
    minstrel, Sep 13, 2004 IP