What is ther best way to redirect a url

[onelife]

Hi all,

I'm sure this has been asked a thousand times and answered a thousand times more, but I shall give it a whirl. Please bare with me I'm a real novice at this business.

I would like to change my domain name to something like personal-trainer-something opposed to www.one-life.me.uk.

Now if sure if I registered a new site as personal-trainer-something and populated it with content and links etc, this would be classed as spam. I want to be avoiding spam type issues, so is there any way I can buy a new domain name and re-direct it to my old site www.one-life.me.uk?

If I redirected would this affect my current search engine positions?

And I'm sure that redirecting more than one domain is classed as spam right?

Many thanks in advance.

[G[dot]com]

Hi!

Hope I can be of help to you.

The first step is that you REGISTER the domain of your prefference. You can try at http://www.godaddy.com for example. Once you get the domain name, the registrant (godaddy) usually "parks" the domain until you give it a final IP address, provided by your hosting company. So meanwhile if someone types your name they will get a goddady page saying that your site is comming soon.

Now, how to make people go to your old page through the new name:

1) Pointer Domains: Hostings -most of them- offer one if not multiple domain pointers available for a given space. For example my web site has a root doamin name "giselagiardino.com.ar" and also a pointer to that domain which is "chipi-chipi.com.ar" [hey don´t laugh!!! ;o)]. I don´t have two different sites neither a site with two names. Chipi-chipi *points* to GiselaG...like email aliases you know

This is authomatic. You should ask Angelfire about this. And I see it makes no harm at all regarding Search engines´ rules.

2) Page Redirection:

This implies the need to have another hosting to give the new name an IP address. There you should build an index.html or default page and you can do the following:

a)

Originally Posted by Taken from: [url

http://www.web-source.net/[/url]
]"Automatic Page Redirection:

<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://www.yourdomain.com/index.html">

This META tag redirect code will redirect your visitors to another web page instantly. The content="0; may be changed to the number of seconds you want the browser to wait before redirecting. This code comes in handy if you change your web address and need to redirect your visitors to the new page. "

This can be not so friendly to people and to engines...I think.

b) Make a "real" page, visible to the visitors, inviting them to +click here+ to go to main page (w/a link to the old one)...AND if they don´t you can still have the chance to have included the METATAG with for example a waiting of 40 seconds.

People and Search engine friendly. This last option I´ve chossen for a client of my.

Onelife, I hope I have been helpful. Maybe some of these things are not new to you. Any thing, let me know,

Bye bye!

Gisela

PS: Please if I made a mistake here somewhere, somebody clarify it! ;o)

[onelife]

Many thanks Gisela,

You advice was right on the mark, I have my new name and it turns out that my control panel allows me to park additional domains which makes things easy.

So when a web robot crawls my site through the new domain name, is it the new name that will be displayed in the search results or the old name that the robot is directed to?

many thanks in advance.

[G[dot]com]

"So when a web robot crawls my site through the new domain name, is it the new name that will be displayed in the search results or the old name that the robot is directed to?"

- Yeap.

I am happy to hear that I could help you in this. You are right about this guess. The crawlers will retrieve your new name. I recommend you that you start doing you search engines submitions hereafter with the new name.

Beyond manual submitions, you may find interesting a software that will help you with the process and it has another useful tools too. Its name is WEB-CEO. You can download the freeware version and yet you will see it is really good.

The site to download it from is:

http://www.webceo.com/

;o) Feel free to contact me for any other questions.

Gisela

[onelife]

Many thanks again,

You are a true gem! I'm just waiting for my name servers to be updated and the new name will be in business.

Thank you once again

[G[dot]com]

;o)

[Conficio]

Originally Posted by G[dot

com]

... You are right about this guess. The crawlers will retrieve your new name. I recommend you that you start doing you search engines submitions hereafter with the new name.

Sorry Gisela,
I think the crawler will pick up the old name, as long as the web-site is effectively hosted under the old name.

In order to change your primary web-domain for the site you have to do two things:

• Change all site internal links so they point to the new domain. This off course is not necessary if you have only relative links.
• Change the primary name of the virtual host. That is the name the (better) crawlers will list your pages under. Ask your hosting company for assistance. They should help you out. If they can't help you, create a new temporary hosting account for the new domain (may be with a better hosting provider); post your complete site there; point your old domain to the new site. qed.

In addition I'd recommend to write all web masters of sites that link to your old domain, asking to change that link. Otherwise you'll loose page rank in Google and other search engines.

Good luck!
K<o>

[trsiyengar]

Hi Gisela & conficio,

For years I had a free web site at tripod.com and it is still there shining. When I upgraded my website after getting my domain registered, I had to send out a lots of mail to all my link providing sites and web masters about the change. Hardly a few responded. My registered site ranks nowhere, wherein the tripod site is still listed on top ten sites for many key word and phrases.
After I got the server changed to an unkown small Indian server, now the problem aplenty.

I am thinking of shifting to godaddy.com for one main reason, there services far better than others and also they offer 150 MB space for the same price. Now what I should do with the http://trsiyengar.tripod.com site? It is a free web site on tripod server and listed in most SE, running for more than four full years, relatively known to many Hindu Religious people in the internet & related Srivaishnavam web sites. Wondering all the web masters who put my old site address now will amend to the registered name - just to delete only the name "tripod." from the link.

[G[dot]com]

Hi!

I have read Conficio´s post and now yours Iyengar, and I can only speak up my own exprience.

I don´t think Conficio´s right and I am wrong, to put it that way. I´d better say that these domain names´ things are a little far complex than a simple "yes it will work, no it won´t".

My experience tells me this:

1) If the hosting services for you site can allow you to have a second domain name for the same place, o what it is called a "pointer" (this can be given with the service or you may have to ask specially for it) THEN, when you start submitting your "pointer" to the engines, they index your site with that "sencondary" o "pointer" domain name.

This is what happened with my site: www.giselagiardino.com.ar an its second name
www.chipi-chipi.com.ar

Moreover I´ve got two different entries at Alexa.com each one for each name. Of course the statistics are the same, BUT the editor´s information and the site´s description is different. I was given the chance two fill a new one.

2) When you are hosting in another server (or the same but under another URL) the new domain and you are using a default page to redirect visitors to the old site AND you submit this new page, engines will index the new name.

This happens to the site of one of my clients.

Where I think I didn´t express properly and therefore out of context sounded as if I meant it was about engines submitting the contents of the old site with the NEW domain, given case 2. No. New domain will be index for its new redirecting page only.

Given case 1, I would say: Yes. At least that is my experience.

Iyengar, in my opinion, if you are thinking of getting a paid hosting service (I don´t know Godaddy as a hosting service but as a domain registrar is very good) I would do this:

* Move the contents of your site to the new hosting.
* As tripod (old hosting where you have the old domain name that you gave to most people) is a free service, I would keep the hosting and upload a redirecting page to the new URL with the new name.
* Anyway I would mail all the webmasters I remember to have my old name and tell them about the change, but in case they omit to change the link, it will still lead the visitors somewhere. And they will follow the redirection link thereafter.

Hope it helps!

GI

ps.looking forward to Conficio´s post LOL ;o)

[AIMRaider]

[quote="G[dot]com"]

"Beyond manual submitions, you may find interesting a software that will help you with the process and it has another useful tools too. Its name is WEB-CEO. You can download the freeware version and yet you will see it is really good

The site to download it from is:

http://www.webceo.com/

Absolutely agree with that recommendation. I just downloaded it this week an have finally got to grips using the full extent of the FREE system. I was so impressed I wrote to them and said so. I paid the $19 for online monitoring [hitlens] and can now monitor responses for all my pages.

[daxesh]

I agree with Gisela that's the correct way. Particulaly if your old site is hosted on a free server than it becomes very complicated matter for tranferring a domain.

[trsiyengar]

Hi G,

I have one paid & Registered domain site with tripod plus the old free site too. Godaddy provides domain registry, paid web servers with additional internet utilities. (150 MB space for 8.95 US$ per month).

Though I sent out many E-mails to all my contacts to change the URL, many of them just sitting pretty n donno whether they will oblige to change the URL to new domain name.

AIMRaider, thanks for the link. But are you sure it contains no spyware alongwith it?

daxesh wrote:
I agree with Gisela that's the correct way. Particulaly if your old site is hosted on a free server than it becomes very complicated matter for tranferring a domain.

The complication did arise, as I have both paid and free, both sites with tripod.com.

[G[dot]com]

I think I understand....

Suggestions. Why don´t you:

1) take godaddy services
2) transfer your new domain -that your are hosting now at tripod too but paying for it- to godaddy´s hosting (they have an excellent customer service to guide you through the process).
3) cancel the new + paid tripod service.
4) keep free + old tripod hosting with the old name and a default redirecting page to the new domain (now hosted at godaddy)
5) forget about the urge that webmasters change your link cos you are sure that the old name will still lead visitors to the new place through the redirecting page.

;o) My brains can´t go further.

[AIMRaider]

re: spyware - hmmmh!

I have just checked my system and whilst my kids have been to the usual sites and so infested me with porn clik-thru's [now deleted] I have nothing that would indicate spyware from Web CEO.. doesn't preclude the possibility but, at least its not obvious. :)

[daxesh]

AIMRaider

I have nothing that would indicate spyware from Web CEO.. doesn't preclude the possibility but, at least its not obvious. :)

Ha ha my brain is going nuts now AIM ride sensibly you are on wrong road :)

[AIMRaider]

daxesh - wots so amusing? I simply said that my spyware eliminator had searched for obvious spyware on webceo, and to be honest I don't think such a program could work WITHOUT spyware seeing as it creates a webcrawl for every page [all 2,000] of them that my website hosts.

If I'm on the wrong road perhaps you can set me on the path of enlightenment...

[zenfort]

I've had a site up since 1994. I started to change the domain name a couple of years ago. But there are too many links to the old name to contact and or will respond. So I think I have given up and both the old domaon name is parked on top of the newer one. The old name has a great page rank etc. the newer one doesn't have the quanity and quality of links. I mean my old name is in bunches of goverment and arts directories all over.
I started using htaccess to tell the spiders to use the new url but I've stopped that cause there is too much invested in the old. Hey ten years this year!

301 redirect
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articl...main-names.htm

namaste

[trsiyengar]

G [.] com suggests:

Suggestions. Why don´t you:

1) take godaddy services 2).... 3}.....

Yes, Gisela, I take your advise. I am changing my server to godaddy.com from next week. I need to make some adjustments with the present snailpace 10th century services of Net4India.com . You know the funny part of this company is, in an average they are on holiday for seven to 9 days in a month! And during this period, no online assistance available. Nor anyone there to help you. And the messages sent during these days are responded after three to four days. They claim 24/7 services!! Moreover, their response is very slow for every querry I raise, had to wait for days to get their response. Hence better I change to godaddy sooner.

;o) My brains can´t go further.

Fine, thus far you proved you have one! And working fine!! :} LOL!

AIMRaider's quote:
I have nothing that would indicate spyware from Web CEO.. doesn't preclude the possibility but, at least its not obvious. :)

It is just common for every freeware programme suppliers to have their label or spyware attached to their property; many a honest one deals in a different way by putting an add or link to their programmes. That's why I checked with you. Nothing more to it. Thanks for your response.

zenfort's idea for redirecting clients can work wonders. Yes retaining the old site and also running a new one with redirected visitors!

[henrybarnett]

Hi,

I live in France, in the mountains and can only use a 56k modem (soon to have antique value!).

I have a website www.immoweb66.com and it is lodged with www.lerelaisinternet.com (a subsidiary of Wanadoo & France Telecom).

Being unhappy with Wanadoo as my ISP I changed and now I keep my website on www.free.fr (for the moment!) And anyone going to www.Immoweb66.com gets redirected to www.myhomepage.perso.free.fr

However I only reference the site www.myhomepage.perso.free.fr for three reasons:

1. I do not have to tell anyone to change the URL of Immoweb66. I do it by redirection at www.lerelaisinternet.fr
2. I believe spiders do not like a domain name that redirects so I just point the search engine spiders to www.myhomepage.perso.free.fr IS THIS CORRECT?
3. I can change my ISP from free.fr to any other and ALL I have to do is start referencing the new homepage on the new ISP.

I realise that I have to re-reference but if I can still keep a web page on the old ISP (with one of those “all-you-pay-for-is-your-time-on-line” deals) I can change that one web page to include that META tag “refresh” and send the surfer to my new ISP. I incur no charges on the old ISP! AND I can still have that looked at by the spiders.

Don’t know if this makes sense but it works because that’s the beauty of a domain name. It’s like having your telephone number for life and it will work no matter which ISP you use wherever you are in the world.

Henry

webmail@henry-bar.net

[sarahk]

back to the start of the post
I created a subdomain on my site and wanted to route all traffic through it directly but didn't want the hassle of putting code on every page to ensure the location was correct so I used my .htaccess like this:

redirect 301 /botspotter/(.*) http://bots.pcpropertymanager.com/$1

People got the content they asked for, not just the index page.

Admittedly they're not asked to update their bookmarks etc and I might lose some referrer info (haven't looked into that) but the slickness is what I wanted.

As for submission software, there are plenty of posts about saying don't use software as you risk spamming which is how Botspotter came about. I was sooo confused by it all and it was hard reading the logs to see if I had been indexed etc. I haven't submitted in years, and I never submitted Botspotter itself, yet Google visits most days.

Through creating content on other sites with link backs and my trusty Directory (read DMOZ) entry you get found.

[tdambra]

I am new to the Forum but have had a web site since 1995. Still I am lost in this thread :)

My question is why can't Google, for example, pick-up a re-direct/s and resolve its algorithm to the final domain?

From 1998 to 2002 I maintained the free domain www.aadconsulting.cjb.net and built up a a Google rank of 5/6 and a search position of 1st or 2nd on the keyword "access add-ins". When I registered the domain www.aadconsulting.com, it took 6 months to get a 5 Google rank for that domain, but there are still 100's links to the old domain which Google ignores in determining search result positioning and the Google rank.

This brings me to a possible heresy: I think Google is beginning to act like a monopoly. Google has two stakeholders: surfers and webmasters, and webmasters are getting less attention. For example, as well as the redirection issue, I recently approached GoogleAdsense seeking to use my my Adsense earnings to pay for ad placement, and for the payment of earnings to PayPal rather than by check (my bank charges are userous!). The answer was NO for both requests :(

Well, that's my two cents worth...

[sarahk]

Originally Posted by tdambra

My question is why can't Google, for example, pick-up a re-direct/s and resolve its algorithm to the final domain?

What sort of redirect have you got in place. A 301 redirect is seen as "permanent" and I would expect Google to respect that.

[tdambra]

Thanks sarahk.

I read up on 301 redirect and don't think it applies in my case: cjb.net domain forwarding is proprietory and the redirect is seamless with the new domain showing in the address bar once a page is loaded, and despite this Google doesn't pick it up in their ranking/links algorithm...

[sarahk]

Originally Posted by tdambra

I read up on 301 redirect and don't think it applies in my case: cjb.net domain forwarding is proprietory

Nothing on the web is truly proprietory - it just means they're not going to tell you how they did it.

I ran use curl to visit your site and this is a subset of what I got back:

HTTP/1.0 302 Moved Temporarily 
Date: Sun, 02 May 2004 02:36:18 GMT 
Server: Apache/1.3.20 Sun Cobalt (Unix) mod_gzip/1.3.26.1a Chili!Soft-ASP/3.6.2 mod_ssl/2.8.4 OpenSSL/0.9.6b PHP/4.1.2 mod_auth_pam_external/0.1 FrontPage/4.0.4.3 mod_perl/1.25 
Location: http://www.aadconsulting.com/ 
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 
HTTP/1.0 200 OK 
Date: Sun, 02 May 2004 02:36:20 GMT

What this tells me (and I might be wrong) is that the page I requested has moved temporarily and that the new page was ok. However, as a machine, I have to consider that the page may revert back because I only got a 302 header rather than a 301 header. Therefore I'll continue to index the original page until it disappears or moves permanently.

[synergytheory]

Originally Posted by tdambra

A 301 redirect is seen as "permanent" and I would expect Google to respect that.

Absoluetly correct.

Do NOT use a meta refresh redirect if at all possible, it may raise the google spam filters.

Go with the .htaccess 301 redirect, you can even get away with this on a windows [IIS] server [ link: http://www.attention-to-details.com/...iis-server.asp ]

[trsiyengar]

AIMRaider :

I have just checked my system and whilst my kids have been to the usual sites and so infested me with porn clik-thru's [now deleted] I have nothing that would indicate spyware from Web CEO.. doesn't preclude the possibility but, at least its not obvious. :)

You are right. Thanks a lot for guiding me to right site. Not only I downloaded the webceo, but also now registered with as many as 161 S.E. for listing! And that works marvellous wonders in many counts.

My thanks again, AIMRaider. My apprehension was, that any freeware suppliers in general, take it as a short cut route to place their spy ware & non-removable cookies, some times it sits permanently in your system; but now it is proved otherwise.

[zeusco]

Don't forget to add a text link from your old site index page to your new site/URL with some good anchor text.
In time, all the spiders that crawl your old site will index the new one. Google & Yahoo's new Slurp should follow & find it right away.

Good luck ;)

[trsiyengar]

zeusco,

Thanks for putting the fine print. I would have omitted this one giving old site index page site/URL with some good anchor text. NOw I am sure to follow this. Thanks a lot for your kind info, that will put me on SE Maps!

[braknews]

I moved from a subdomain to a domain in March so I had to do this to redirect all the traffic from the old to the new.

So I

1. Uploaded all the content to the new domain.
   
2. Created a new index.html page explaining about the change of address & uploaded it to the old location just in case someone's configuration will not allow them to be redirected to the new domain using the .htaccess.
   
3. Created that following .htaccess that I uploaded to the old domain:

   ErrorDocument 403 index.html
   ErrorDocument 404 index.html
   redirect 301 / http://www.new-domain.com/

   As mentioned earlier if someone requests a specific page on the old domain they are automatically forwarded to the equivalent page in the new. The 301 is inform Google that this is a permenant redirect & according to their help the site should be dropped.
   
4. After watching for about a month the old domain name did not get dropped from Google. So I followed their instructions on how to request that they drop a site and only then did the old domain get dropped from being listed in the search results. Although if I check the PR of the old domain it has inherited the PR from the new domain.

Do not use the HTTP refresh to redirect as Google & the other search engines will liken your site to one of those many redirect sites used by the porno industry (not good for your PR).