Transferring from one website to another

[deniser]

If I have set up a new website selling the same products, what is the best way to redirect from one to another:

1. redirect the whole domain
2. redirect all the individual pages
3. just redirect the pages which have some value - and if so, what is the best way of finding out which pages are the valuable ones?

Many thanks

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

1&2. Typically you will be on a Linux host meaning you can use something called mod_rewrite in a .htaccess file to configure redirection (google or ask for more relevant info).

3. Do Google searches to see which pages come up highest for your keywords of choice, check your log files / visitor analytics to see which pages are most popular and why, use the above to ensure popular URL get redirected to relevant content.

 

[exom_expert]

Definitely the best and easiest way would be to redirect the whole domain
And don't forget to use 301 redirect - which will tell google that you've moved permanently

 

[makeusvisible]

In an ideal world you should redirect every page of the old site, to the most relevant page of the new site. Any pages which have no value to you can be ignored and they will fall off the index. However, some of those less important pages can have good quality links pointing to them, and not redirecting them can have a negative impact on your placements.

If your new site is a Wordpress one I would highly recommend using a plugin to handle the 301 redirects. It will give you the benefit of being able to instantly see every time a redirect kicks in, as well as being able to see a log of any 404 errors, and thus allowing you to instantly create redirects for any pages you might have initially missed to forgot about.

I did write a blog post on the topic last week which you might find of interest here.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Definitely the best and easiest way would be to redirect the whole domain
And don't forget to use 301 redirect - which will tell google that you've moved permanently

Completely the wrong answer.

Are you changing the domains? Are you just changing the content management system? Are the urls staying the same but the domain changing?

Lots of questions, but really need to know.

In an ideal world there should be no 404 errors, no 'bulk' redirecting i.e. all pages redirect to the homepage of the new site.

So lets step back and have a bit of detail regarding the difference between the new website and the existing website software, build, urls, etc

 

[antropy]

I have set up a new website selling the same products, what is the best way to redirect from one to another

As others have said, we'd need a bit more info to give definitive advice, but if all of the URLs will be the same and just the domain name changes, then you could do a redirect on the whole domain and tick the "Wildcard Redirect" box as below:

 

[deniser]

Completely the wrong answer.

Are you changing the domains? Are you just changing the content management system? Are the urls staying the same but the domain changing?

Same domain, same products but everything else completely different including CMS, categories, URLs, pages etc.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Ok that complicates it. It may still be doable sitewide by using some redirect match rules.

can you post two samples of the old and new url for a product, then the same for a category please ?

Lets compare them and see if there is any common ground that identifies the page

 

[makeusvisible]

Also let us know how many product pages you have? If you only have a few it might be quicker to do redirection on a page by page basis....if you have thousands the task is quite different.

 

[deniser]

Ok that complicates it. It may still be doable sitewide by using some redirect match rules.

can you post two samples of the old and new url for a product, then the same for a category please ?

Lets compare them and see if there is any common ground that identifies the page

I would like to but prefer to stay anonymous on the forum for commercial reasons.

The URL will be structured very differently. The meta titles and descriptions can be the same. The on page text and pictures can be the same. The category can have the same products in it.

 

[deniser]

Also let us know how many product pages you have? If you only have a few it might be quicker to do redirection on a page by page basis....if you have thousands the task is quite different.

Thousands unfortunately.

 

[Digital Oriented]

It is advisable to redirect all pages so that 404 (File Not Found) errors do not harm your potential customers’ experience. However, if you want to redirect only pages that have some value, you can:

1. Use Google Analytics to identify pages that attract most of the traffic;

2. Setup 301 permanent redirects via .htaccess file for those pages;

3. Use Google “Change of Address” and Bing “Site Move” tools to notify the search engines about moving your site to the new domain.