How can I redirect incoming links from an old version of my site ending in .ctlg and .ivnu?
-
My original site was published in 2001 using "version 2" software from Ivenue, the hosting company that I signed up with at that time. The site's structure was built in such a way that the primary category pages ended in the extension .ivnu. Product or item pages on the shopping cart side ended in the extension .ctlg. My site's name was and is [Lamplight Feather, Inc.](<a class="webkit-html-attribute-value webkit-html-external-link" href="http://www.tonyhill.net/" target="_blank">http://www.tonyhill.net/</a>). We built our business between 2001 and 2011 and by the last three years (2009 - 2011) of using their version two were averaging a million dollars per year in gross sales.
We decided to "upgrade" to Ivenue's "version 3" in 2011 to take advantage of some more modern options and because their newer software created web pages ending in .html which we thought more desirable. We made the switch in late 2011. But it was a disaster. Traffic and sales dropped precipitously. For the past two years (2012-2013) our annual gross sales average dropped to $400,000. (Two other factors were involved beside losing the many incoming links and link juice we had built up over the years: Panda came in that fall and my little niche market (decorative feathers) was flooded with competitors.)
However as I try to rebuild our traffic and business little by little, I am stumped as to how to redirect the many incoming links that went to our first site's .ivnu and .ctlg pages. I have constructed redirects for some of our current but changed .html pages like this and put them in the file cabinet and they work:
For (example): http://www.tonyhill.net/feathers_c384589.html then
But trying the same thing for (example) http://www.tonyhill.net/craftfeathers.ivnu still returns a 404. Is there something I am missing. Ivenue is useless in this matter by the way. Their "technicians" are no help. I plan to be migrating my site once again to a new hosting company and hope to solve this problem before then. Thanks for the attention,
Tony Hill
This is an example from Google Webmaster of the type of links that show up as 404's that I would like to redirect:
| URL: | http://www.tonyhill.net/productCat96521.ctlg |
|
| Error details | Linked from | |
<colgroup><col></colgroup>
| http://www.tonyhill.net/productCat43986.ctlg |
| http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=21416&page=2 |
| http://www.cosplay.com/showthread.php?p=3832751 |
| http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=21416&page=2&highlight=fur |
| http://www.muppetcentral.com/forum/threads/puppeteers-resources-links.19330/page-2 |
| http://www.muppetcentral.com/forum/threads/how-do-you-like-my-puppets.18549/page-2 || | |
|
-
Dear Caitlin,
Thanks for pointing out that the redirects DID work. Duh. Not sure what happened when I checked and determined they were not working. However they are all Meta_Refresh redirects. It seems that Ivenue cannot install 301's on the server side. At least no one there I have talked to seems to know how. Presume there is a problem with the original proprietary software (.ctlg, .ivnu). I have another inquiry in with them today. So we shall see.
I do have a concern that the Meta_Refresh redirects are hurting my link juice. We are talking about several hundred (or more) incoming links that reference those .ivnu and .ctlg pages.
-
Hello Tony,
I wish I could be of more help. Unfortunately, I am unfamiliar with this platform. One thing that I noticed is that that you said the following link 404'd: http://www.tonyhill.net/craftfeathers.ivnu. However, for me, it loads just fine.
One recommendation I have would be to download the following redirect checker http://www.ayima.com/seo-knowledge/redirect-checker.html. Once in your dashboard it will notify you if a redirect that you implemented is properly resolving.
Remember to create 301 redirect not 302. 302 redirects are meant to be temporary and, as a result, link equity will not flow through them. 301 redirects are considered permanent.
I hope this provides some help! ^Caitlin
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
-
Explore by site - Site overview's servers
Hello, When I want to "Explore by site" and make a "Site overview", I have only 4 choices for the region : USA United Kingdom Canada Australia But the location of my business is in Chile.
Reporting & Analytics | | Sodimaccl
Does this have any repercussion or negative impact in the analytics ? Thank you.0 -
Difference between External Followed Links and Total External Links?
Hello, could someone please elaborate on what is meant by "External Followed Links" vs. "Total External Links"? Does "External Followed Links" mean the number of links that are generating traffic to the site? Or is there some other way to conceptualize it? Any help would be appreciated! Thank you in advance.
Reporting & Analytics | | lincolndigitalgroup1 -
Dip in traffic from Pune for our sites in Google Analytics
Hi, We have noticed dip in traffic from Pune after 6th May'14 in our Google Analytics account for few of our sites. Did anyone noticed the same for your site. Kindly let me know if you have any idea. Thank and Regards
Reporting & Analytics | | vivekrathore0 -
How can I use Google Analytics to detect users viewing my website on a TV?
I want to see in Google Analytics whether or not people are viewing my website on a TV, such as with a smart TV or other device connected to their TV. These are the only ways to do this that I have found so far: Operating system: Google TV, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, Xbox Browser: Nintendo Browser, Playstation 3 Are there other data points that I can reliably use to segment these users?
Reporting & Analytics | | RCF0 -
Is there a problem with using same gmail account for multiple site analytics and GWMT?
Hi, Is there a problem or a general recommendation about using the same gmail account for two different sites (both in Google Analytics and Webmaster tools)? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | BeytzNet0 -
URL ending with ?cpc=1
Hi, In the analytics data (SEO - Landing Sites) on a site I just started working with - 2 different url's show up (when I filter the results): /example**.asp** /example**.asp?cpc=1** The first recieves 2/3 of the visits (among these 2 pages) and the other recieves 1/3 of the visits (among these 2 pages). The second (/example.asp?cpc=1) is apparently getting the clicks from Adwords, since it isn't indexed by Google.. Can someone explain me: 1) why the cms is producing this kind of double landing page? is it possible to avoid it in any way? (it is not the only example on site - so it makes analyzing data more difficult). Thanks Christian
Reporting & Analytics | | sembseo0 -
Will javascript generated links affect my bounce rate?
Hi all, I run a site called Applicable Jobs (http://www.applicablejobs.com) and from analyising my analytics I notice my bounce rate is unusually high at around 85%. I'm keen to get this right down as I've read recently that a high bounce rate is a metric Google uses in determining positioning in the SERPs. I honestly don't think it's the quality of my content because I feel it's genuinely useful to my target audience but I'm wondering if the way my jobs list is generated is causing an issue. At the moment I have my jobs listings generated through javascript so I can have nice effects and use a bit of ajax but if Google crawls it, it obviously won't be able to see the listings. So I'm wondering if when a user comes to the site and they click on one of the job listings, does the Google analytics code recognise that click because that link is generated through javascript? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | Benji870 -
Spider 404 errors linked to purchased domain
Hi, My client purchased a domain which based on the seller "promising lots of traffic". Subsequent investigation showed it was a scam and that the seller had been creative in Photoshop with some GA reports. Nevertheless, my client had redirected the acquired domain to their primary domain (via the domain registrar). From the period on which the acquired domain was redirected to the point when we removed the redirect, the web log files had a high volume of spider/bot 404 errors relating to an online pharmaacy - viagra, pills etc. The account does not seem to have been hacked. No additional files are present and the rest of the logs seem normal. As soon as the redirect was removed the spider 404 errors stopped. Aside from the advice about acquiring domains promising traffic which I've already discussed with my client, does anybody have any ideas about how a redirect could cause the 404 errors? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | bjalc20110