domain name change?

advice on best method

[stevenjm]

have a site that was on personal webspace and has numerous links and se listings under a subdomain. The hosting company has now changed the way it names its subdomains but the old address still has a redirect in place. I am going to have to move the site to proper hosting and domain name and need advice on the best way to do it. ie. If I put a duplicate of the existing site on the new location will this cause problems? I was thinking of making a gradual transition to the new site by placing a redirect on the old site but still having the old site able to be spidered so as to maintain rankings it already has while working on the new sites rankings. Will a javascript redirect on the old site prevent it from being spidered? This was a favour for someone and I do not want to do too much work if possible but I am worried that I could run into duplicate site problems. Should I redo the entire site for the new site? Does duplicate mean text content or exact html copy? Could I just change a bit of html for the new site? thanks.

[jdMorgan]

stevenjm,

Simple is best. If possible, put a 301-Moved Permanently redirect on the old domain, pointing to the new. Leave that old site up for a couple of months until you see the new URLs in the search engines, and the old ones all or mostly gone.

How you implement a server redirect depends on what server your old site is on, and what priveleges you have.

On Apache, you can often use the RedirectPermanent directive in an .htaccess file. On IIS, your control panel may offer some options. Or perhaps you can use PERL or PHP to generate a 301-Moved Permanently response header. All of these will work, it just depends on what "tools" you have on the old server.

If it is not possible to use a 301 server redirect, then use simple text links from the old domain pages to the new; Spiders will follow those links and find the new domain. Or, you could try a Meta-refresh redirect as a last resort. The advantage of the 301 is that search engines will "realize" that it is the same site with a new name, and credit your old page rank/link popularity to the new site.

Try a WebmasterWorld site search for "301" and "domain" plus your server type for tons of threads on the subject.

Jim

[stevenjm]

Thanks. unfortunately a 301 redirect is out of the question. I have no control whatsoever over the server and the admin is totally unhelpful and will not implement a 301. The pr you mentioned is the main problem here but also not wanting to lose listings in certain se's that are now paid inclusion only. and also not wanting to risk banning from se's by having duplicate content in the process.?