HTML Pages and new ASP pages

[tbone542]

Hi all,

I am having a bit of a problem deciding what to do with a website I am working on.

The site is currently about 150 static HTML pages and it is going to be using a new ASP shopping cart.

My problem is this. The 150+ static HTML pages are currently ranked very well in all SE's for their respective keywords. Is there a way I can redirect those pages to the new ASP pages on a window's platform server?

I know you can do a 301 redirect on a linux server, however I am unable to find out how to do this on a Windows platform. Is there a similar method that tells SE's a page has been permanently moved?

The alternative is to alter all of the HTML pages and place a link for visitors to click on to enter the new store interface. It's a lot of work, but may be necessary to avoid being penalized for a lot of pages all of the sudden disappearing.

I am trying to figure out what would work best without getting hammered by the SE's for trying to offer customers a better shopping experience.

Thanks,
T-Bone

[ADAM Web Design]

You can create a custom 404 that can try to read the old URL and server.transfer the page accordingly to the correct new URL.

http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/123000-1.shtml

Would be a good article to get you started.

[tbone542]

That's a good idea.

I tried it and it works very smoothly. It doesn't pass it's page rank to the new page obviously, but visitors will end up where they want to be.

This can also be used to forward to a site map if the old HTML page is gone.

Thanks for the input. I am just hoping revamping the site won't kill the serps of the site.

Thanks,
T-Bone

[ADAM Web Design]

If you can get it to work, try Server.Transfer instead of Response.Redirect. It will save a call on the server, and if you make sure that the Response.Status is set to 200 (check the raw logs for this), then the search engine won't know the diff.

[Jerry]

I agree, forget the response.redirect and use the server.transfer method.

only one caveat: Make sure that the page you are redirecting to resides in the same path on the server, or you'll see nifty little widgets like missing images, etc...

[tbone542]

Thanks guys for the suggestions.

I played around with the server.transfer method and ran into a problem. The pages I want to redirect to have query strings. The use of server.transfer returns an unexpected character error in the path of the new page. I guess you can only go to pages that have query strings if the original url was called with the query string and then the server.transfer passes the original query string on to the new page.

One thing that makes switching easy for me is most visitors enter through the domain name. Therefore when it's time, I can just change the default page the server returns to index.asp as opposed to index.htm.

As for the subpages I am replacing. I came up with an idea using your suggestions for an ASP 404 page.

When the new asp pages are up, the old html pages will be deleted. The server will then be directed to an ASP coded 404 page when trying to find the old page. In the page, it will look to see what page the person was trying to go to and if it is listed will execute the following...

Case "oldpage.htm"
Response.Status="301 Moved Permanently" 
Response.AddHeader "Location", "newpage.asp?id=43"

This will send a 301 back to the browser and tell it the oldpage.htm has been "permanently" moved to the new ASP page.

It seemed to work on a test page I tried. Returning a 301 and redirecting to the permanent new home of the page.

Any thoughts?

-Tbone

[Jerry]

That solution will also work nicely to get the spiders looking at your new pages and keep the indexes up.

Good luck with the transition

[ADAM Web Design]

I wouldn't even use the 301 method. Let Google et. al. think the page is still active. That way, you don't lose your SERP positioning on it. You can get away with passing session variables to the new pages and having the information retrieved as such (e.g. product IDs, whatever).

I've never tried adding a header myself, so I have no idea how well it would work.

[tbone542]

I thought the 301 redirect would be best, because that is what the big G states to do on their site when you move pages.

I tried it with a page and looked at the server headers returned and it looks like it is working properly telling the browser or spider the page has been permanently moved via a 301 to this page and to forget the old page, and index this page. Does it pass PR. I guess I will find out.

I just found another problem. It seems a French website's nameservers point to my ip address. Therefore anyone trying to visit their site is landing on mine. My site is even indexed in google under a search for their site's name, on the first page? I called my hosting company and they said there really isn't anything they can do if someone is pointing their domain to my site's IP address? I am getting their sites visitors and I don't want them.

Anyone else ever hear of this happening?

Thanks,
-Tbone