(Entry was posted by Paul Simbeck-Hampso on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 12/17/2014).

Migrating to CMS.

I have a question...

I`ve taken on a project to help a musician friend improve his website and branding and I`m currently struggling with a SEO issue that I hope the community help me out with; here`s a simple summary:

The original website, a self hosted drupal site has been up and running for some 10 years or so and gets about 3, 000 unique views a month and has approx 230 indexed links in search.

The new website has been prepared on Content Management platform and as such it won`t allow us to add a .htaccess file for the redirects (which we`ve prepared).

I`m trying to find the best way to redirect the URLs from the old site to the new site with as little disruption to search traffic as possible.

My research to date has thrown up using HTML meta refresh in the or HTML canonical links, but I`m not sure either are the best way to go. I`m also toying with the idea of creating a new domain ending, perhaps a .net, instead of using the current co.uk for the new site and then adding a .htaccess file in the old site to redirect to the new .net version - but I`m concerned about duplicate content in that scenario.

Any ideas, tips or tricks on how best to help migrate from the old site to the new would be very welcome.

Best regards,
Paul?

This question begins at 01:35:22 into the clip. Did this video clip play correctly? Watch this question on YouTube commencing at 01:35:22

Share on Twitter

Share on Facebook

YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

Paul Simbeck-Hampson: I have a question...

I've taken on a project to help a musician friend improve his website and branding and I'm currently struggling with a SEO issue that I hope the community help me out with; here's a simple summary:

The original website, a self hosted drupal site has been up and running for some 10 years or so and gets about 3,000 unique views a month and has approx 230 indexed links in search.

The new website has been prepared on Content Management platform and as such it won't allow us to add a .htaccess file for the redirects (which we've prepared).

I'm trying to find the best way to redirect the URLs from the old site to the new site with as little disruption to search traffic as possible.

My research to date has thrown up using HTML meta refresh in the <head> or HTML canonical links, but I'm not sure either are the best way to go. I'm also toying with the idea of creating a new domain ending, perhaps a .net, instead of using the current co.uk for the new site and then adding a .htaccess file in the old site to redirect to the new .net version - but I'm concerned about duplicate content in that scenario.

Any ideas, tips or tricks on how best to help migrate from the old site to the new would be very welcome.

Best regards,
Paul
?ukasz Rogala: If your Content Management platform does not accept .htaccess redirects control just change it. It's crap then.
Paul Simbeck-Hampson: +Łukasz Rogala I thought that a .htaccess file could only live in the top level root? So, from a technical perspective you're saying it is possible, ie. the file could live in our folders root - why would they not allow it then? Hmm...

Not using the CMS is less attractive as one year has already been paid, and apart from this issue, all the other criteria were met.

Overnight I'm beginning to think that have a second domain may be an answer, as the old hosting is any way remaining. We could then add the .htaccess file to the old site.

http://oldsite.co.uk redirects to http://newsite.net

All the matching content on http://oldsite.co.uk would then need to be excluded from search...

Sounds all a bit excessive though!
?ukasz Rogala: If you will redirect old domain to new domain it should be gone after redirect (remember that Google purposely keeps redirected domains in SERPs).
Paul Simbeck-Hampson: +Łukasz Rogala do you mean that all the content on old domain should be removed once the htaccess file containimg the redirects is added to the old site hosting?
?ukasz Rogala: Nope. After you will make redirect from the Old domain to new one you don't have to be afraid of duplicate content between domains - Google should get this by it self.
Paul Simbeck-Hampson: +Łukasz Rogala Thanks for your help, I think I'm getting a clearer picture, but can I just clarify:

My logic here is, instead of transferring the http://oldsite.co.uk domain to the new CMS platform, I would instead purchase a new domain, say, http://oldsite.net and redirect all the co.uk URLs to the new .net URLs.

And does this sound correct?

All files on the http://oldsite.co.uk hosting would be removed and a htaccess file would be added containing the 230 Redirect statements that point to the the new http://oldsite.net domain which is now being used on the CMS platform?
?ukasz Rogala: Hm, one more thing - you have access to the FTP server of your friends website?

If yes - I think using .htaccess file and redirect 301 is enough.

I don't get the point about "not allowing to use .htaccess" file. :)
Paul Simbeck-Hampson: The oldsite.co.uk is self hosted, and yes we have ftp access.

We wanted to move the oldsite.co.uk domain to the CMS platform, so only having one domain name.

The new site is a CMS platform and they've said we can't add a htaccess file.
?ukasz Rogala: New site is hosted on the new CMS platform hosting or what?

I'm curious which CMS platform is so lame not to allow users to use htaccess files. :D
Paul Simbeck-Hampson: +Łukasz Rogala exactly, the new site has been prepared on the CMS platform.
?ukasz Rogala: So if new site is hosted on the new CMS hosting just ipload prepared .htaccess file on old server and it should be done.
Paul Simbeck-Hampson: +Łukasz Rogala ;But we wanted to use the oldsite.co.uk domain name on the CMS platform
Paul Simbeck-Hampson: We currently only have one domain name - oldsite.co.uk ...
?ukasz Rogala: I see, sorry.

So the idea of using second domain name would be the best one but I'm afraid you can have some small drops in traffic while doing that.

It's very unusual thaat CMS does not allow to use external .htaccess files. Whats the name of the CMS?
Paul Simbeck-Hampson: +Łukasz Rogala ;No problem - and I really appreciate you helping out - I too was confused that the CMS couldn't/wouldn't allow a htaccess file to be added. I think I'll go back to them later with this information.

The music CMS is called Bandzoogle. ;

What's interesting is that you repeat that you find it unusual that they won't allow us to add a htaccess file - their suggestion was to try and match the URLs.

I do have access to the <head> in the CMS which is why I began to look for client side HTML refresh options - but then read that Google may not like this as this is often a trick used by Spammers.

As the oldsite.co.uk has approx 3,000 unique views a month I'm very cautious about how to proceed - as you can imagine! :)
?ukasz Rogala: Umm, I'm looking at the examples on Bandzoogle and to be honest - you could make better website using Wordpress as well. ;)
Paul Simbeck-Hampson: +Łukasz Rogala ;I've often used Wordpress for other projects in the past, but in this scenario the criteria matched really well to the offerings available on BZ; and it's a really easy to use backend, which was a big plus for the musician. Apart from the Redirect issue, we're very happy with the solution.

In any case, just wanted to again thank you for listening and helping me clarify the situation, and that buying a second domain may be an option; albeit not the perfect solution. I'll speak again with the support at BZ today and see if they can be a little more adaptive in their solution offering... fingers crossed :)
Paul Simbeck-Hampson: +Łukasz Rogala ;If we did go for the second domain name, would we remove all the content on oldsite.co.uk and just leave the htaccess file in place - or would we just leave the site as it currently is?
?ukasz Rogala: Leave as it currently is. Google will manage to remove it from SERPs by itself.
Paul Simbeck-Hampson: +Łukasz Rogala ;Ok - thanks.

View original question in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 12/17/2014).

Migrating to CMS.

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

CATEGORIES

All Questions in this Hangout

By Jim Munro

Next Hangout:

Find us on Facebook

Today's Temperature.