Moving my site

I need some help with the redirect

[malasorte]

Hello,

This is my first step to beeing a "true webmaster". I'm moving my site from www.site-of-a-friend.org/my-site to
www.widget.com.
I have read about .htaccess but I have some questions.
1. Should I use 301 or just a simple redirect meta tag?
2. If I use 301 will my site keep its ranking in Google?
3. Can I use 301 in a directory of a site (my site is a directory)?
4. Please could someone tell me how the .htaccess file should look (based on the addresses I gave above)

Please help me, any answer is greatly apreciated. If you have tips on the best way to move your site write here please.

Many thanks!

[cabowabo]

Do a search in Google for HT Accessible for a nice free utility to modify your HTAccess file. You can do the 301 and you should keep your rankings. Sometimes things get messy though. Do the change over the weekend since this is your first one and make sure your host provider has support over the weekend in case your mess something up.

Cheers,

CaboWabo

[old_expat]

You might look through the postings or post this on the Apache Server forum to get some good examples.

One thing I learned the hard way on a recent server changeover is that my SSI (headers, footers, menus) didn't work without an Apache handler in the .htaccess

Your new web host should be able to answer these questions.

If you use CPanel, be careful about what you let it write to your .htacess. Either an auto update of CPanel, or a hot links exclude, (not sure which did it) once deleted my 301 redirects.

[old_expat]

"4. Please could someone tell me how the .htaccess file should look (based on the addresses I gave above)"

There is a tutorial on Apache .htaccess under the 'charter' link.

I have found that I get better help if I take a try at the .htaccess code (after studying the tutorial), then post it as a "this is what I have come up with" question on the Apache Server forum.

[larryhatch]

Hi Malasorte:

Years back, I did almost exactly the same thing.
The main difference was that the old main site was my dial-up ISP rather than
some domain belonging to a friend.

I suggest the following:

1) Stay on good terms with your friend, you will probably need his help from time to time.
2) Select a good host ISP. Look up their name on the internet to make sure
they aren't a spam portal or the like. Ask around.
3) Secure your new domain name and point it to the new Host ISP.
4) Set up your site very nicely. Keep is clean and white hat. Put your best foot forward.
5) Submit new site (main page usually) to DMOZ. Play by the rules. Read their TOS
and follow it to the letter, submit to the proper subcategory only, then leave that ALONE.
6) Use Yahoo to find ALL incoming links to ALL your old existing pages.
Email each webmaster, thanking them, and advising of your new Domain/URL.
This could take a long time, some old links will never get fixed.
7) NOW do 301 redirects from the old site to the new.
Make sure they are 301 PERMANENT redirects. Others may suggest something better.
I vaguely recall a code that indicates permanently moved or some such.
8) Work at getting more incoming links to new site. -Larry

[malasorte]

Thank you all for your very informative posts. The site I'm moving is already well established, good SERPS, backlinks and I'm runing AdSense on it.
After reading posts in the "Google Search News" forum, I decided that 301 seems to be EVIL, and that many sites using it have got sandboxed by google. I think I will go with a "spammy-looking" META redirect, or a simple "We have moved" page. These seem to be a lot more "Google friendly". In fac I don't know for sure what to do, I'm so scared... This is my small buisness and I've invested so much work in it.
If you have comments I will be most grateful.

[Iguana]

I think you are misinterpreting the Google Search News threads - 302 redirects (Temporarily moved) were causing problems when used by unrelated websites. The 301 is safe and the standard way to move site or move pages within a site and retain Pagerank.

[malasorte]

Iguana this is the thread that scared me :)

[webmasterworld.com...]

Users clearly state that they used a clean 301 redirect.

[Iguana]

The thread does sound worrying - although it's worth noting that websites have been disappearing from the rankings whether or not they have just done a 301 redirect (I've just had 2 sites re-appear in the ranking but I don't think this was due to my non-www to www redirect)

But you are probably right to be cautious. Do a MetaRefresh or a forwarding link now and think about 301 next year.