Change of URL

[the_kraken]

I have a site I work on and they had made some meta additions a while ago and had pretty good luck with search engine placement (for free efforts at least). The problem now is that they have changed their URL, and for legal reasons I cannot do a straight redirect to their new one.

In most search engines, their old site still comes up, usually ahead of their new one. Is there a way I can get the old one to 'drop' out of the searches? Thanks.

[goodroi]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld the_kraken!

If you want to remove a site from the engines you can use robots.txt. But first try and use a 301 redirect so you do not lose the link popularity.

[the_kraken]

My problem with the 301 is that due to a change in ownership, I have to maintain a page that explains the split of the company on the old URL. That page includes links to both companies. So if you search for one of our products, you get: oldurl/product/index.asp which in turn takes them to that explanation page (that page is our 404 on the server, in case people have bookmarks).

I don't know if using a 301 for specific pages would work. Any thoughts?