Website Migration - Very Technical Google "Index" Question
-
This is my understanding of how Google's search works, and I am unsure about one thing in specifc:
- Google continuously crawls websites and stores each page it finds (let's call it "page directory")
- Google's "page directory" is a cache so it isn't the "live" version of the page
- Google has separate storage called "the index" which contains all the keywords searched. These keywords in "the index" point to the pages in the "page directory" that contain the same keywords.
- When someone searches a keyword, that keyword is accessed in the "index" and returns all relevant pages in the "page directory"
- These returned pages are given ranks based on the algorithm
The one part I'm unsure of is how Google's "index" connects to the "page directory". I'm thinking each page has a url in the "page directory", and the entries in the "index" contain these urls. Since Google's "page directory" is a cache, would the urls be the same as the live website?
For example if webpage is found at wwww.website.com/page1, would the "page directory" store this page under that url in Google's cache?
The reason I ask is I am starting to work with a client who has a newly developed website. The old website domain and files were located on a GoDaddy account. The new websites files have completely changed location and are now hosted on a separate GoDaddy account, but the domain has remained in the same account. The client has setup domain forwarding/masking to access the files on the separate account. From what I've researched domain masking and SEO don't get along very well. Not only can you not link to specific pages, but if my above assumption is true wouldn't Google have a hard time crawling and storing each page in the cache?
-
Thanks for the response, I'll be sure to change my clients configuration.
Do you know the specifics of why it's a disaster? I think it has something to do with the technical explanation above, but I wanted to get some confirmation so I can educate my client as to why it's a disaster.
-
You're correct, Steve - the forwarding/masking is a disaster for SEO and usability.
The domain name needs to point to the new account by changing the A Record in the domain name's DNS file. It's been too long since I've used GoDaddy at all to advise on the setup, but this is standard stuff.
Essentially you declare the new account as the correct one for the website, then the A Record is pointed to that new account and the site will behave as normal with the new content. GoDaddy's support should be able to walk you through the process.
Hope that helps?
Paul
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
If I want clean up my URLs and take the "www.site.com/page.html" and make it "www.site.com/page" do I need a redirect?
If I want clean up my URLs and take the "www.site.com/page.html" and make it "www.site.com/page" do I need a redirect? If this scenario requires a 301 redirect no matter what, I might as well update the URL to be a little more keyword rich for the page while I'm at it. However, since these pages are ranking well I'd rather not lose any authority in the process and keep the URL just stripped of the ".html" (if that's possible). Thanks for you help! [edited for formatting]
Technical SEO | | Booj0 -
"Links to your site" in google webmaster tools not showing any data
Hello All I have a very strange query regarding the "Links to your site" section in webmaster's account my account does not show the Link data after so many days (more then 30 days) of verification. Can you please help me out how can I get my data in the webmaster's account?
Technical SEO | | barnesdorf
Please note I have verified the account using Google Analytic verification process. (does this affect?) I have seen this issue in my two websites which I have verified by Google Analytics. Please help me out.0 -
Google Index Speed Opinions
Hello Everyone, Under normal circumstances, new posts to my site are indexed almost instantly by Google. I know this because an occasional search with quotation marks surrounding the 1st paragraph of text displays my newly published page. I use this tactic from time to time to ensure contributors aren't syndicating content. My question is this: I've noticed over the last day or so that my newly published articles are not yet indexed. For example, an article that was published over 24 hours ago does not appear to be indexed yet. Is this cause for concern? Is there an average wait time for indexation? XML issue? Thanks in advance for the help/insight.
Technical SEO | | JSOC0 -
NoIndex/NoFollow pages showing up when doing a Google search using "Site:" parameter
We recently launched a beta version of our new website in a subdomain of our existing site. The existing site is www.fonts.com with the beta living at new.fonts.com. We do not want Google to crawl the new site until it's out of beta so we have added the following on all pages: However, one of our team members noticed that google is displaying results from new.fonts.com when doing an "site:new.fonts.com" search (see attached screenshot). Is it possible that Google is indexing the content despite the noindex, nofollow tags? We have double checked the syntax and it seems correct except the trailing "/". I know Google still crawls noindexed pages, however, the fact that they're showing up in search results using the site search syntax is unsettling. Any thoughts would be appreciated! DyWRP.png
Technical SEO | | ChrisRoberts-MTI0 -
Does google "see through" php/asp redirects?
A lot of the time I see companies employing a technique like this: <a target="_blank" href="/external/wcpages/referral.aspx?URL=http%253a%252f%252fwww.xxxx.ca&ReferralType=W&ProfileID=22&ListingID=96&CategoryID=219">xxxxxa> Or similarly with php. In an attempt to log all the clicks that exit their site from certain locations. When google bot comes along and crawls this page, does it still understand that this page links to www.xxxx.ca?
Technical SEO | | adriandg0 -
How important is meta content="" name="title"?
How much meta content="" name="title" impacts rankings? I have right now:
Technical SEO | | tonis
<title>Keyword</title> So my question is, that does this Keyword 2, so called meta title have any impact on rankings?0 -
Technical SEO question re: java
Hi, I have an SEO question that came my way, but it's a bit too technical for me to handle. Our entire ecom site is in java, which apparently writes to a page after it has loaded and is not SEO-friendly. I was presented with a work-around that would basically consist of us pre redering an html page to search engines and leaving the java page for the customer. It sounds like G's definition of "cloaking" to me, but I wanted to know if anyone has any other ideas or work-arounds (if there are any) on how we can make the java based site more SEO-friendly. Any thoughts/comments you have would be much appreciated. Thanks!!
Technical SEO | | Improvements0 -
Site just will not be reincluded in Google's Index
I asked a question about this site (www.cookinggames.com.au) some time ago http://www.seomoz.org/qa/view/38488/site-indexing-google-doesnt-like-it and had some very helpful answers which were great. However I'm still no further ahead. I have added some more content, submitted a new XML sitemap, removed the 'lorem ipsum...' Now it seems that even Bing have ditched the site too. The number 1 result in Australia for the search term 'cooking games' is now this one - http://www.cookinggames.net.au/ which surely is not so much better to deserve a #1 spot whilst my site is deindexed? I have just had another reconsideration request 'denied' and am absolutely out of ideas/. If anyone can help suggest what I need to do... or even suggest how I can get feedback from the search engines what's wring that would be fantastic. Thank you David
Technical SEO | | OzDave0