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I recently parked my lesser searched domain [snip] on my new domain [snip], same IP address for both, hoping to increase web traffic. The problem? The search engines did not recognize my domain switch. My big question is, was this because the spiders were going to the same IP address, or was it because my listing on ODP (dmoz.org) has yet to be updated?
I have since been in a raging battle with some of the editors at the ODP (because the site hasn't been updated in 5 weeks since re-submission). I've gone so far as to ask them to please take me off their directory all together (thinking it is my listing that has been scewing up the searches).
At this point, what is my best option in making sure that the search engines are headed to [snip]?
Thanks for your help,
Ben Sturges
[edited by: pageoneresults at 3:25 am (utc) on Dec. 24, 2003]
[edit reason] Removed Specifics - Please Refer to TOS [/edit]
Why not take the advice given at resource zone and do a 301 redirect? - that will solve your problem with the search engines and the ODP listing.
Yeah, people keep on saying that- do a 301 redirect, and maybe it's just my ignorance- but doesn't that only work for the index page? Or can I do it to each page of the site? And how do I do it? It's kind of a catch 22 for me, because I want more people to find the site (through a more searchable name), but I also don't want my current users to think that my original domain is dead. I've got roughly 400 users on my email system, and I don't want to send them mixed messages. I really can't afford to alienate my current users, and that's my fear of placing a 301 redirect up. What do you suggest? I mean, that's why at this point, I'd rather be off of dmoz completely, than to have to jump through hoops like this, or even risk going through the horror of losing my user base. All it really takes is one domain change, which for some reason takes more than five weeks to do. I just don't get it. I know that I'm not the only one submitting sites, and that dmoz is a free service. But is it really worth it in the long run? I've been on dmoz for two years, and I'm starting to wish I had never submitted my site there in the first place.
Thanks,
Ben Sturges
I have since been in a raging battle with some of the editors at the ODP
This doesn't usually work to well, ODP moves at their own pace pretty much no matter what.
While I haven't read the ODP forum thread, I'd guess the editors want some indication on the site that it is actually moving so as to prevent someone submitting a request to do something to a competitors website.
Good luck with the modification of the ODP listing, but please keep the specific site details in the forum ODP has setup.
I understand you want me to leave specific site details/status out of this forum, but I'm still unclear on 301 redirects, as was proposed by the previous replyer, and my original question has yet to be answered:
The search engines did not recognize my domain switch. My big question is, was this because the spiders were going to the same IP address, or was it because my listing on ODP (dmoz.org) has yet to be updated?
Thanks,
Ben Sturges
A properly implemented 301-Moved Permanently redirect will fix your problem. It's usually very easy to do on IIS with control panel or on Apache with mod_alias or mod_rewrite. It's also quite simple to redirect all pages on one domain to the corresponding page on another domain, even if they're hosted on the same server.
Try doing a site search on this subject [google.com], and you'll turn up at least 1,740 threads on this topic.
Jim
Of course, putting in the redirect will also encourage the ODP to change your listing with them (since it will then be obvious the change is legitimate), and you may prefer that for traffic reasons. But if you changed your ODP listing to the new one tomorrow, without redirecting one URL to the other, you would still have your duplicate-content problem with Google, and they still might choose the 'wrong' one to display. The redirect will kill both those birds with one stone AFAIK.
I recently parked my lesser searched domain [snip] on my new domain [snip], same IP address for both, hoping to increase web traffic. The problem? The search engines did not recognize my domain switch.
If you parked your domain with your registrar, there is a strong chance that the registrar is returning a 302 redirect instead of a 301. The 302 is telling the search engine spiders to maintain their current URI reference but to temporarily redirect to the new URI reference. This is incorrect.
As stated above, a 301 Moved Permanently redirect should solve the issues you are faced with.
P.S. There is also a good chance that your registrar is returning a 200 Status Code on the redirect. I would use the Server Header Checker [searchengineworld.com] at Search Engine World and verify the status of the header being returned and make sure it is correct. Anything other than a 301 may cause problems such as those that you are experiencing.
Manually, you just need to create (or modify) a file called .htaccess in the root of your site, and add this:
Redirect permanent / http://www.newsite.com/ I've only ever used Apache so I can only offer help for that platform. The Googlebot seems to be particularly obediant (in my experience) to error codes so it will instantly remove all references to your old URL and replace them with the new one.
