Greetings, wyn!
Anytime a website changes its URL, there is a potential for disrupting
formerly beneficial Google Search Results. We'll see what we can do to
reduce or eliminate the effect of that in your case.
First of all, you can stop worrying about Google still crediting your
site for "hits" if you move: Google's Page Rank algorithm, while
somewhat secretive and rather complex, doesn't use "hit" counts as one
of the factors in determining your Page Rank.
However, the Googlebot is not too pleased if it thinks that a website
is trying to gain additional traffic by reserving a lot of different
domain names with referrers or "mirror" (identical) sites, so you will
want to be a little careful about conducting your changeover.
Something you may want to consider: Your old URL is listed on 30 pages
that are on other websites than yours:
://www.google.com/search?q=%22%2Bwww.wildnaturephotography.%2Bcom%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=0
It might be very difficult to get those occurrences changed, and you
don't want to lose them. So you may want to consider leaving your
current (old) site running, and just keep the referrer from your new
site, or at the very least e-mail the webmasters of all those pages
asking them to correct your URL once your new site is up and running.
You don't say what the expanded emphasis of your new website will be.
You might also want to consider leaving your old site, with its
emphasis on photography, up and running, placing cross-links to your
new site on it, and publishing a site with a very different look,
feel, and text (not just a copy of the old one) at the new URL. The
Googlebot will not think that they are identical, and should not have
a problem indexing both of them.
Once you've got your new website ready to go, you will want to remove
the referrer to your old site. At that same time, you will want to
replace your old website with a page which automatically forwards
traffic to your new site. Then you will also want to submit your new
site to Google at:
://www.google.com/addurl.html
(Be aware that it may take anywhere from 1 to 3 months for your site
to start showing up on Google; however, since Google also uses DMOZ as
a guide to its indexing efforts, you might be able to speed that up a
little by also submitting your site in a DMOZ category as described
next.)
DMOZ (Directory Mozilla/Open Directory Project):
http://www.dmoz.org/add.html
FIRST: search using keywords that really describe your new
website to find the best category at http://www.dmoz.org , then
once you're on the page for the category you choose,
click on the blue "Add URL" hypertext link in the
upper right-hand corner of the page.
Other popular Search Engines to which you can submit your new site:
HotBot:
http://ldbreg.lycos.com/cgi-bin/mayaLogin?m_PR=29&m_CBURL=http://insite.lycos.com/searchservices/lite?step1.asp
AllTheWeb:
http://www.alltheweb.com/add_url.php
AltaVista:
http://addurl.altavista.com/addurl/new
Zeal (LookSmart/MSN free submission w/free registration)
http://www.zeal.com/users/register.jhtml
For more information on how Google Page Ranking works, I encourage you
to read the following excellent papers:
"The Google Pagerank Algorithm and How It Works" by Ian Rogers, IPR
Computing Ltd. (Last edited: 16th May 2002):
http://www.iprcom.com/papers/pagerank/index.html
"PageRank Uncovered" by Chris Riding on the Search Engine Optimization
Support Forums website:
a page of explanation and examples:
http://www.supportforums.org/pagerank
"PageRank Uncovered" by Chris Ridings
http://www.supportforums.org/PageRank.pdf
Essentially, what these papers say is that the best way to get a
higher Google Page Rank, you should ask sites with similar or related
themes to yours if they would place a link to your website on theirs
in exchange for you placing a link to their website on yours. You will
especially want to find other sites which already have a Page Rank of
4 or higher; you can determine a site's Page Rank using the Google
Toolbar, which is an add-in to Microsoft Internet Explorer. You can
read more about the Toolbar, and dowload it, here:
http://toolbar.google.com
Remember that links from a few ***quality*** sites with related themes
who link to only a few other pages (including yours) will do far more
to improve your Page Rank than links from one hundred other pages that
link to hundreds of sites.
CAUTION: Be wary of "submit-a-site", website "positioning", and
"search engine optimizer" services, and "link exchanges" (link farms),
who promise to increase your Page Rank in exchange for money (or for
free, for that matter). Such programs (like WebPosition Gold and
LinksToYou) are a good way to get your site banned from Search
Engines.
For more information on developing a Google-friendly website, I
recommend that you study the information in Google's Help Department:
://www.google.com/webmasters
Guidelines
://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
Facts & Fiction (myths dispelled)
://www.google.com/webmasters/facts.html
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
://www.google.com/webmasters/faq.html
User Support Discussion Forum
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=google.public.support.general
Another fabulous resource is the forum at WebmasterWorld.com:
http://www.webmasterworld.com
and at Search Engine World:
http://www.searchengineworld.com
I encourage you to visit these sites and learn more about making your
site attractive and friendly to Search Engines.
If you take full advantage of all the resources listed above to
increase your knowledge and proficiency as a webmaster, I am confident
that you will see it pay off in improved Search Engine Results.
Before Rating my Answer, if you have any questions about this
information, please post a Request for Clarification, and I will be
glad to see what I can do for you.
I hope that this Answer provides exactly the information that you
needed. Best wishes for increased search rankings and traffic for your
website!
Regards,
aceresearcher |