Parked former company's url on top of my existing url and that URL is showing in SERPs for my top keywords
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I have the URL from my former company parked on top of my existing URL. My top keywords are showing up with the old URL attached to the metadsecription of my existing URL. It was supposed to be 301 redirected instead of parked but my web developer insists this was the right way to do it and it will work itself out after google indexes the old URL out of existence. Are there any other options?
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Thanks, again. Will try these options today. It'll be nice going in more knowledgeable so it's a very good thing you do Mr. Kley.
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Nothing he can do? Lmao what a terrible answer. On the old site, you should still have Ftp setup. In that account, go into your htaccess file and add the rule that redirects all traffic to your existing domain, or the one you want to get indexed. Also add a robots rule denying any access to the old domain ftp.
Option 2 is to delete any and all old site files in the domain Ftp you want to get rid of, have the site urls return a 404 error, and do a url removal request in webmaster tools. Option 1 would be safer imo, but doing option 2 will get rid of the old domain for good.
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Thank you both for your responses.
@DavidKley, They do both show up and the developer says there's nothing more he can do since the old site no longer exists. Everything I've read online seems to contradict his though.
The domains in question are:
old - www.aceystowing.com
new - www.jonnystowingnow.com
Any further insight would again be greatly appreciated.
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Just wanted to add:
Do both urls show up for a page? Meaning if you had a page about dog treats, can that page be accessed through both urls on the Web (manually or in serp results)? If so, you need to redirect the domain you don't want to use immediately to prevent duplications. Just parking one on top of the other usually will not take care of replacing the other url. You don't want to have both indexed at the same time.
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In addition to parking the domain, did you add a parked domain htaccess rule? In addition to search engines, make sure your visitors are getting to the right place, without duplicate content.
After a while, all the new urls should replace the old ones, but I have seen this process take up to 6-8 months.
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The definition of words like "parked" can vary in the FAQ documents of one hosting company to another. When I have moved domains I have "parked" them on my hosting and then 301 redirected specific old URLs on the old domain to specific URLs on the new domain.
There are a lot of really competent people out there, but sometimes webdevelpers have a "mechanical knowledge" of how things work but for search engines to treat your domain perfectly something else is required.
If this was my site I would have a technical SEO look at it. I've done this stuff for myself but always paid someone else to review my plan and check to see if it is workin' properly.
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