Why does Google show info on redirected page?

[baritoneuk]

Hi there!

I have instructed one of our customers to put a redirect meta tag on his old site (as we have designed a new site for them) and given them a robots.txt file which disallows any robots for the site. This, he did about 4 weeks ago. Still, however, the old site is at the top of the Google search for the McFarlane String Quartet. I know it takes a bit of time, but I don't understand why it is showing. Also the old site description on Google now shows the text of the new site that it is redirected to? Why is this? The old site address is: www. mcfarlanestringquartet.ukf.net and the new site is www.mcfarlanestringquartet.co.uk

Looking at Google it says it is good to put a 301 header on the old site- but I don't think our customer may be able to do it- as it is a free site from www.ukf.net . Does anyone know about this? It is getting a little frustrating as we want the new site to overtake the old one and although we've certainly been able to increase the PR it still is lower than the old site. Please, can anyone help?

[mjstrand]

could you do a php header command? I'm not sure whether google will see it as an acceptable redirect or not, but even an html file can usually be executed by php. Most servers have php running.

Just put this into the page that you are trying to redirect (or all of them if necessary):

<?php
$loc='http://whereyouwanttogo.html';
$process = "Location: ".$loc;
header($process);
?>

[minstrel]

The meta refresh tag will work - it just takes time - you'll hit a point where you will see both pages indexed.

In the meantime, track down as many backlinks to the old site as you can find and email them asking them to change the link - part of the reason the old site may rank higher is that backlinks are still pointing to that address instead of the new one.

[PastorRick]

Getting a re-direct done effectively may be a good temp solution but Minstrel has hit the nail on the head. I had the same issue with two of my sites.

Since your main issue is with Google, Google makes it simple to find back links especially if you already have the Google toolbar installed.

If you have the tool bar simply click the little "I" next to page rank and click backward links.

You can also use the link command from the search field on google. Probably works on other engines as well.

For example, if I wanted to find all sites linking to my ISP I would enter
link:http://www.crosswayisp.net/
into the search field ( or go the the homepage and click the "I" and select backward links

The good thing about this is that it will also find your own backward links that need to be changed.

Just be sure to use the old URL and then contact the sites to have them update their records. An easy way to do that is to post an new index page or entry page that tells visitors what the new page is and asking them to bookmark the new page and delete the old bookmark.

[greeneagle]

Baritoneuk

I believe with 2 different URLs I would use a server side 301 permanent redirect so that there is no mistake of gateway page perception.

Tracking down backlinks was already a very difficult task, complicated by the last GOOGLE update. The link:www.yourdomain.com IBL checking method seems to have become a completely worthless tool or at best changed dramatically.

You are better off with a year’s worth of hosting stats and the ?”www.yourdomain.com”, method IMO.

Also, note that the last update was 5-6 weeks ago, 1-2 weeks before your last change. You probably have another week or so with the "worm slapping" they rcvd last week. When your equipment gets "hosed" it is difficult to test new alg changes, and they always test them first.

Ken

[soon]

I have faced this issue when making a PHP redirect. If Google listed the old page, it continues to list the old URL with the new page's content. It will even do this, if it had, separately, listed the new page. Which is a big worrying, as they don't like duplicate identical content!

I have told them about it, without any real useful response.

tony

[T2DMan]

You need to be very careful with how you do redirects

The correct coding for a 301 redirect is:

$url="http://domain.com";
Header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
Header ( "Location: $url" );

Without the first header, the redirect becomes a 302 temporary redirect. If you use wording even slightly different, it can also become a 302 redirect.

[baritoneuk]

Thanks for all the help.

It is very frustrating that Google shows the description of the new site under the url of the old site. Does anyone know why it does this? It really makes no sense at all.

I have emailed a lot of the sites that contain the old url- but hardly anyone has replied- we are really at their mercy. Again, very frustrating.

And in regards to the 301- because the old site is hosted on a free service (www.ukf.net) it won't have PHP on it (I don't think) so I can't put the headers on it. I am not sure whether I can put a .htaccess file on it either as it is a free service.

Sigh. I don't know what else to do.

[minstrel]

There really isn't much else you can do except

1. wait until Google ctaches up with the change, which it will in due course
2. follow up on those backlinks - send out as many emails to admin@sitename.com as you can - recheck in a month - send repeat email for any backlinks still showing the old address - repeat as needed. Some sites are slow to update but most will want to avoid "page not found errors" and consequently will want to comply. Also, many sites use dead link checkers - what you want to avoid is the situation where they discover the old link is dead (which I assume will happen eventually?) and just delete the link instead of correcting it. Don't rely solely on link:url in Google either - use "url" as well as "yoursitename" in Google - also use other search engines like Yahoo, MSN, etc., to locate backlinks.

[greeneagle]

One more thing that is an absolute must if you can:

Create a Custom 404 error page that folds any error in search back into the Site. Your links on that page should include your full URL to each page instead of being site dependent.

This will catch everyone and fold them back in, you will find that when done well that it will create enough interest that the visitor will most likely follow one of the links and bookmark again. Most of my visitors are repeat visitors from bookmarks and favorites. Don't forget about your loyal audience or customers.

This obviously doesn't apply as well to a new top level domain as changes in an existing domain.

Ken

[minstrel]

In general, that's good advice, Ken - I would add that ideally your custom 404 will also include a link to your sitemap and a site search box.

However, in this case, the original site is on a free hosting service. Therefore, it's unlikely that the owner will be able to create an .htaccess file to enable a custom 404.

[baritoneuk]

Great- thanks guys. I will keep on emailing all the sites with old links, and hopefully this will help. I got my first success when one of the sites has updated their links. Hopefully I'll get some results.

I think the idea of the custom 404 is a good one- I am surprised how many web sites don't do this. However as the old site is on a free service this is not possible.

I think perhaps another reason why the PR is lower than I would like is because I am using frame based forwarding. ie. www.mcfarlanequartet.co.uk is actually a frameset with the webpage www.ensemblebsites.com/mcfarlanequartet as the only frame. I have put lots of information and links in the noframes code for www.mcfarlanequartet.co.uk (our hosting provider only lets us set this part of the page for domain onlys) Do you think this is a problem? Is there a way round it?