Moving subfolder content from one domain to it’s own new domain?

Search engine friendly method…

[soquinn]

I have a client who wants to move content and scripts that currently sit in a sub folder of one domain to a brand new domain on it’s own and have a few questions:

Old:
[somesite.com...]

New:
[newdomain.com...]

1) Does the .htaccess file go within the moved folder [somesite.com...] or before it [somesite.com...]

2) How exactly would the 301 redirect look in .htaccess so it’s SE friendly:

redirect 301 / move_content/ [newdomain.com...]

Would that point all the sub folders like:
[somesite.com...]

to the new domain too?

3) Finally when is it save to delete the old folder or should you just leave it there?

Thanks.

[jdMorgan]

1) Does the .htaccess file go within the moved folder http://www.somesite.com/move_content/.htaccess or before it http://www.somesite.com/.htaccess

Either, but the location affects the form of the directive. If you put the code above a subdirectory that is to be 'moved', then the path to that subdirectory should be included in the directive.

2) How exactly would the 301 redirect look in .htaccess so it’s SE friendly:

Redirect 301 /move_content/ http://www.newdomain.com/

Would that point all the sub folders like:
http://www.somesite.com/move_content/sub_move_content/sub2_move_content
to the new domain too?

Yes, that code would redirect everything in the directory /move_content/ and below; Since Redirect uses prefix-matching, it will redirect any file whose local URL-path begins with "/move_content."

3) Finally when is it save to delete the old folder or should you just leave it there?

You can delete the old folder as soon as you have tested the the redirects thoroughly.

Now a warning -- The search engines won't update immediately. They may also drop the rank of the pages for awhile -- weeks or even months. You might want to read some of the threads on 301-Redirect problems and the so-called Google "Sandbox" before redirecting a whole lot of pages that are revenue-critical.

Jim

[soquinn]

Thanks jdMorgan, after the new pages are back in the engines, PR is back and the old files deleted...etc (maybe months later) should you remove the .htaccess redirect file, in other words, is it temporary or permanent?

[jdMorgan]

I leave 301's in place for up to 15 months. After that, almost all search engines will have found and followed the redirect, and most if not all of the sites that linked to the old URL will have updated their links (because I asked them to). If I have any particularly valuable old, un-updated links, then I may leave the 301 for that link in place indefinitely. It's a decision that you have to make for your particular site and your circumstances, though.

Jim