Re: Best practices for domain change / major re-branding
"Scott Allen" <scott_at_onlinebusinessnetworking.com> wrote:
> I am an author of a book to be published next spring. For quite some
> time,
> my co-author and I have been maintaining a website at
> OnlineBusinessNetworks.com. We have been waiting for a final decision on
> our book title by our publisher, which we now have, and we are planning
> to
> move our site to the new domain, TheVirtualHandshake.com.
<snip>
> So, my questions:
> 1. What issues do I need to consider on the more technical side, i.e.,
> inbound links, etc.?
Contact the sites linking to you - if possible include URL of the page
with your link and the new link location
Use a custom 404 error page - don't let your visitors get stranded. At the
very least provide them a way to find what they came for. Maybe a search
box or a site map.
Make use of HTTP redirects and status codes - for example you can
automatically for all visitors to the contents new location. Using the
proper status code informs search engines that the change is permanent.
apache docs: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_alias.html#redirect
If you're an apache user, mod_rewrite might be useful. You might be able
to get some help with this somewhere like www.webmasterworld.com
Josh Carlson
Received on Fri Sep 03 2004 - 09:17:43 CDT
