mod rewrite, 301, meta refresh, which one?

[adambeazley]

Hey everyone,

Basically our company is changing its name and changing websites to match. So I know I will eventually have to have a mod_rewrite 301 to the new site to show that it permanently moved, but I am toying with the idea of using a meta refresh for a little while.

Ex: "widget company" has changed names to "trinket company". We have changed websites as well. Click here to be redirected or wait and you will be redirected automatically.

Is this a good idea or should I just 301 it from the beginning and make a note of the name change on the home page of the new site? Could i run into duplicate content issues by only doing a meta refresh considering the content is similar if not the same in some areas (design is different)?

Thanks

[AjiNIMC]

That is a pretty interesting stuff because a meta redirect will allow to splash the message to your client that you have changed the domain.

I will still advice 301 because of various reasons. In your case, I will suggest something like this.

Option 1
Oldsite.com/abc.html does a 301 to Newsite.com/abc.html?action=old-redirect

Newsite.com has a .htaccess, which will help you add a message to the page based on action=old-redirect.

Option 2
Do a 301 to the old site.Till the time, the traffic from 301 is coming, put a small message, previous we were XYZ.com (if possible)

I will suggest option 2.

Aji

[adambeazley]

ahh you just gave me a good idea.

Maybe I could .htaccess to the new site with some post info ?info and pickup that with a php if statement and printout the name change info if the visitor is coming from the old site.

[physics]

Be careful with adding ?info=whatever to the link as the engines may decide that THAT is your preferred home page and not just the .com. Another way to approach it would be to show a one time message (use a cookie to determine it's the first time) on the new site to every new visitor for a while and just do a 'normal' 301 from the old domain to the new one.

[physics]

Oh, I just noticed you said you would 301 with some POST (not GET) info ... that's different and may work :)