Migration to New Domain - 301 Redirect Questions
-
My client is migrating their site to a new domain. I just did a big redesign, including URL structure change, and 301s from old URLs to new URLs. Now they want a new name, so we're moving forward with a new domain name.
However, we're going to keep the site on the current domain while we ease customers into the new name. During that time, I'm going to be building links to the new domain name and 301 Redirecting that new one to the current domain name. Then, once we migrate the site to the new domain name, I'm then going to redirect the current domain name to the new domain name.
So, my question(s) is/are:
- Is the above process the best way to use 301 redirects to to build links to the new domain while we transition everything?
- Should I (or can I) do 3 redirects from the oldest URLs, to the current URLs then to the new URLs?
- General question... I can't seem to find this anywhere online, but what is the best practice for what order URLs should be in in the htaccess file?
Thanks!
-
Hi Tom,
Thanks so much for the thorough answer. Very, very helpful. And thank you for the article about execution order... I've been looking for something like that for a while!
-
Hi there,
Question 1: I'll come back to that...
Question 2: You can use redirect chains but you shouldn't. Although a desktop browser will redirect through the chain quite quickly (providing there are no mistakes), a mobile browser takes 0.6 seconds to get a connection to a page, so each redirect quickly adds up to poor user experience for any mobile users. And although Google has stated it’s crawler does well to deal with 1 or 2 redirects, it can come across problems with longer redirect chains and you could see your final page not getting crawled from the redirect as it should. Both Yahoo and Bing have stated their crawlers do not perform well when it comes to redirect chains. As you make the transition to the new domain you should update your original redirects to send the visitor to the correct page after the first redirect.
Question 3: Best practise for redirects is to specify the more specific rules first, if you're using regex with redirectmatch or rewrite rule, then you'll want to put them after your more specific oldpage.html to newpage.html, so that the more specific rule is given the chance to match before the regular expression is given a more broad chance to match. And finally add an 'if all else fails' rule at the bottom to redirect all requests that were not dealt with by a previous directive.
There's a nice post here on execution order in your htaccess if you'd like to give it a read:http://www.adrianworlddesign.com/Knowledge-Base/Web-Hosting/Apache-Web-Server/Execution-order
Back to Question 1:
If you're choosing not to follow Daniels advice and make the change all at once, you can 301 the new sites backlinks into the existing site, and 301 the old URL structure to the new URLs. But when you do implement the change, you'll want to modify all of your existing redirect to point to the final page the user should end up at, and not force them through a maze of redirects. Then you can then just remove the redirect from the new site, and have those users land on the pages the new links you built are pointing at. Don’t forget Google takes time recrawl, index and ‘trust’ new redirects and attribute all PR and SEO juice to the correct pages.
If at any point you plan on having the same content live on both domains without a redirect in place it would be best practise to use the rel=canonical link attribute in your to signal to google which is the preferred version on content to show in SERPs.
Hope that helps give a bit more information,
Tom
-
The plan has been thoroughly thought out and definitely needs to be implemented... that's why I came to this forum to ask a technical question. The branding issue has already been resolved.
It's a technical question because it's specifically about 301 redirects and the best practices when implementing them in this particular situation.
Thanks for your advice, but it didn't answer my question.
-
Ummm, this isn't what you asked....
...but is it out of the question to re-consider this:
"However, we're going to keep the site on the current domain while we ease customers into the new **name."**This is a mistake, IMHO, and you should do everything possible to persuade the client to re-think the plan.
Best practice, as I'm sure you know, is to do page-level redirects from each page on the old site to its closest corresponding page on the new site.
Is the company name changing...or just the domain name?
In any event, I can't see an elegant way of doing what you propose...only of mitigating the damage and confusion that will inevitably result.
I'm sure others, more technically knowledgable than I, can weigh in on damage control. But why damage yourself at all?
I don't think this is really a technical SEO issue at all.
It's a fundamental marketing and branding issue, IMHO. So much better to zoom up to 30,000 feet and address the larger issue.
**Bottom line: the way to make the change is, well, to make the change! All at once. **
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
-
301 redirected all my pages to my new domain, now I have a problem with Google Search Console
Hi guys! I bought a new domain name and redirected all my URLs from the old domain to the new one. Everything worked perfectly but now I have a little problem. I want to use the option 'Address Change' in google search console. Step 1 Works (Select new website in the list) Step 2 Works (Confirm that the 301 are working) Step 3 Asks me to Verify the old domain (huh!?) in order to complete the request. Obviously that doesn't work because my 301s WORKS! So if I try to verify the old website by putting a google file in the root of my domain Google tries to access it and it automatically redirects to the new domain. I must be missing something lol help!
Technical SEO | | benoit_20180 -
301 redirect not working
Hi there! I have recently moved a domain that has been indexed by google and setup redirects so that it forwards to the new domain. It seems like the only redirect that actually is working is the canonical and main domain but every other page and or page nested within a folder are not working. Here is an example of some of the redirects. Am I doing this wrong? It seems to be going to the new domain but can't find the actual pages.... RewriteEngine On
Technical SEO | | twotd
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !agoodsweep.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://agoodsweep.com/$1 [L,R=301]
redirect 301 woodstoveservicerepair.html http://agoodsweep.com/woodstoveservicerepair/
redirect 301 /westchesterchimney.html http://agoodsweep.com/west-chester-chimney/ Thanks in advance for any help!!0 -
Where to put 301 redirects in Magento?
I will be changing the URL structure in a magento store from "base/category/subcategory/product" to "base/product" which means i have to make over 1000 URL 301 redirects so our old links still work. Should i put the redirects in a .htaccess file so they stay intact no matter what or should i just put them in with all the other rewrites (in Magento 's URL rewrite manager)? Thanks
Technical SEO | | tilenkrivec0 -
New Website and Domain Question
Hi all, I am launching a new website around the end of October and I have purchased a great domain to use for it. My question is should I put some kind of holding page up to try and start building up some domain authority in preperation for launch? Or maybe a blog at www.domain.com/blog and then keep all the blog content at the same location when the full site goes up? Or is it best to wait and just launch the site when the first version is complete? Thanks, Ben
Technical SEO | | BenInder0 -
Does redirect of domain alias help rankings?
Yes... It iz I again ;o) Here's one for you savy techies out there: So, I've got a primary domain which is live, optimized and running smooooth. And then I've got a couple of misspelled domains as well (17 to be exact). Will it have an effect if I 301 those misspelled domains? What's Best Practice for several domain aliases? Example.
Technical SEO | | nosuchagency
Primary domain: bryghusprojektet.dk
Alias domain 1: bryghusprojekt.dk (301 redirects to primary domain)
Alias domain 2: bryghus-projekt.dk (Hosting company infopage)
Alias domain 3: bryghus-projekter.dk (Not activated) Regards.1 -
Google Webmaster redirect vs 301 redirect
OK assuming a client's website has the right tracking script (hopefully analytics isn't effected by this issue), ... what happens if the htaccess file has a 301 redirect to the www-address, but within Google Webmaster Tools, the address chosen to crawl by Google is the non-www address? How will Google handle and which address takes precedence in this situation? _Cindy
Technical SEO | | CeCeBar0 -
301 Redirect with an Exact Domain name Match
My Client had a site that ranked for a pretty competitive two word phrase, but for a variety of reasons had to transfer the site to a different domain name (with none of the previous keywords). We've 301'd everything just fine to the new site, but our traffic for that two word phrase, as well as related long tail traffic, is beginning to drop. Could the drop be related to something that we didn't do well in the transfer? Or is it due to the new domain name now not being an exact match? Sitenote question: Our Google Analytics is still set up for the former domain name and shows data just fine. Is there any reason to switch GA to the new domain? What are the pros/cons? Much thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | TrevorMcKendrick0 -
Redirect or not to redirect
We are rebuilding a website and try to get rid of errors. The content remains exactly the same but we correct the code and make it load faster. The site has quite many backlinks and I can't decide whether to remove .html endings from the urls and 301 redirect to the new ones or leave them with the older ending. If I remove the endings how much of the link juice will be passed? Anyone any idea?
Technical SEO | | sesertin0