Problems with changing URL

site adress change, best way to redirect without .htacess file

[marchayden]

I have recently changed my URL from www.username.ispname.net/sitename to www.sitename.co.uk. I don't have access to the .htaccess file of the old site and I am not sure on the best way to redirect.

So far I have uploaded the new site to www.sitename.co.uk and put a "we have moved page" on the old site. This contains the title of the site, a couple of small pictures that link to the new site and a "click here to enter new site" link.

Google has indexed the new site at the new address but not updated its cache of the old site so at the moment it has to nearly identical sites indexed at the two different address. I realise I might have gone about this the wrong way but am I likely to get penalised on the new site?

[vincevincevince]

can you use [eg] php? if so, you can write 302 headers manually :)

[takagi]

Hi marchayden, welcome to WebMasterworld. You can also use a php or asp script if you want to make a 301 redirect (permanent redirect).

<added>vincevincevince beat me to it. But 302 = "moved temporarily" so 301 (permanent redirect) is better.</added>.

[edited by: takagi at 10:48 am (utc) on April 20, 2003]

[marchayden]

Am I right in thinking either of those methods will require the server to have something installed on it? This would be a problem as it has nothing running on it. All I can use is basic html any anything thats runs at the client side.

This is one of the reasons I moved the site as it is annoying having to do everything remotely such as statistics, mail forms etc

I wish I had payed for hosting in the firt place!

Just checked my new site and currently it says "this site is not indexed by google" or words to that effect on the google bar. However if I search for the address it is there. Does this just mean it hasn't got a PR yet? What are the chances of the new site been penalised as google thinks it is a dupliate of the old site?

[vincevincevince]

Your situation is difficult. Try asking your webhost to set up at 301 (sorry, my mistake!) on your site?

If not, then use the meta tag for no-index, so the old site drops out of your index. you'll not transfer your PR but you'll get it out of the index before long and let you move up the new site.

[takagi]

If other redirects are not possible, your last hope could be a Meta refresh tag pointing to the new site. But I'm not sure how Google and other SEs will handle it.

> "this site is not indexed by google"
Especially if a redirect is difficult, try to get the current external links pointing to the old site updated ASAP. Google will not index a new site if there are no links to it. Or in the best case, if you do an "Add URL" on the www.google.com, it will index some pages, but these will be removed if Google fails to find inbound links.

To prevent problems with duplicate content, you will have to remove the current pages from the old site. Or you could update every individual file with a link to the same page on the new site (I don't know how many pages you have). By doing so:
-> the content of the old page and new page is different (no duplicate content anymore)
-> Google will soon find all the pages on your new site
-> visitors to the old pages will easily find the new one and they can update a bookmark/favorite setting.

> However if I search for the address it is there.
Google will updates the PR only once a month and probably the site was not known when the current full index was made. Now the site is known, so after next update it won't be gray anymore. If you don't get links to it, the site will start with a PR0. With a redirect you could get the PR of the old site.