Moving SE 'Aware' Messageboard to New Server

[Frank_Rizzo]

I want to offload my messageboard onto a seperate server, but I'm worried if I'd lose the search engine awareness I have at the moment.

I'm using phpbb with the SID frigs to allow google + a few others to index the messageboard. This is working great, and I have 1000's of pages in saturation.

This is the current set up.

www.widgets.co.uk/messageboard/index.php

The widgets site will stay, but I want to move the messageboard to a new server:

www.talkaboutwidgets.co.uk/index.php

What will be the effect of this? Will SE's see that the 1000's of messages at www.widgets.co.uk/messageboard/index.php are 404'd and thus penalise?

Will I have to start from the bottom up with www.talkaboutwidgets.co.uk because it is a brand new site?

Note that in all the messageboard pages there will be a menu with links pointing back to the main www.widgets.co.uk site.

[takagi]

With few deeplinks (links from other sites to sub pages) it should be no problem after a transition period. Instead of a 404 (Not Found), you better go for 301 (Moved permanently) to make that period shorter. It will also help you to get the PageRank transferred to the new site.

Do you have any experience with programming a .htaccess file?
Do you want to keep the same directory structure?

[Frank_Rizzo]

I guess using a redirect would be the best option. This would guide SE's in the right direction, and also assist users who may have the current setup bookmarked.

Directory structure can stay the same, or change.

www.talkaboutwidgets.co.uk/index.php

or

www.talkaboutwidgets.co.uk/messageboard/index.php

I know the basics of .htaccess for passwords and stuff but I haven't used redirects.

So how would this work?

Is it just a case of redirecting all requests to

www.widgets.co.uk/messageboard/

to

www.talkaboutwidgets.co.uk/messageboard/

[takagi]

Try this thread:

Domain redirect with htaccess [webmasterworld.com]