Thanks for asking!
In Webmaster Info, Google offers this advice on transitioning your
website to a new URL:
"I am changing my URL.
We cannot manually change your listed address at the exact time you
move to your new site. There are steps you can take to make sure that
your transition goes smoothly, however. Google listings are based in
part on our ability to find your site by following links from other
web pages. To preserve your ranking, you will want to inform any sites
that currently link to your pages of your change of address. As long
as the links change as you move your site over to a new location, your
PageRank should not be adversely affected.
If your site goes unlisted for a time, this does not mean you were
intentionally dropped from our index. Sometimes in these transitions,
we fail to find a site at its new address. Just be sure that others
are linking to you and we should pick you up on our next web crawl."
You'll want to read the full information available.
Google Information for Webmasters
://www.google.com/webmasters/3.html
The following search terms should help you locate those who're linking
the old URL so you can request that they update their link. Copy and
paste the terms verbatim into the Google Search Box.
"spectrum-technologies +co.uk" -site:spectrum-technologies.co.uk
link: http://www.spectrum-technologies.co.uk
Yahoo Search Terms:
link:http://www.spectrum-technologies.co.uk
If Google continues to list the old URL, the most likely reason is
that other sites are still linking to the old domain, and Google
robots have followed those links. You'll probably want to use a 301
Redirect, so that search engine spiders will only index the newer
location.
For your MS IIS servers, you'd likely to do that with ASP, or with a script.
In ASP the code [to be added to individual .asp pages] is:
<%
Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently"
Response.addheader "Location", "http://www.newdomain.com/newurl/"
Response.End
%>
The script listed below can handle all redirects for a domain,
however, it requires IIS version 5 or 6. You'll need to check with
your web host to determine if the server meets script requirements.
The script would be designated as the 404 handler and redirects for
any number of pages would be configured inside the script.
Smart 404 Handler
http://evolvedcode.net/content/code_smart404/
To redirect .htm pages, you'd need to set the path to the page that
handles your 404's. You can also point an .asp page (an error handling
script of your own), for example 404ErrorHandling.asp. In that page,
you can list the original URL(s) (.co.uk), and redirect them to the
new locations (.com).
The redirect portion would look like:
Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently"
Response.addheader "Location", "http://www.newdomain.com/newurl/"
Response.end
It may be possible to have your web host directly code redirects for
you. Again, you'll need to read over your host's documentation or ask
if this service is available.
Once the 301 Redirects are in place, and you've located all your link
partner and asked them to update to the new URL, your PageRank should
safely migrate to the new domain extension.
As a last resort, you could request removal of the old pages from the
index, but this is likely not necessary. Google advises patience. I've
seen the migration process take two to six months, the differences
simply due to the capriciousness of individual web crawls crawling and
indexing different pages on each attempt.
One final method, META refresh is another redirection possibility,
however, this is now considered dangerous (to your rankings) because
it has been used fraudently by so many. If you choose this method,
include a 10 second delay, and a transition page that explains you've
moved, and includes a link to the new URL. Even with these
precautions, it's a bit of a gamble.
Further Resources
----------------------------------------------------------------------
301 Redirects on a Microsoft Server
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum47/344.htm
HTTP Status Codes - Redirecting in IIS and Apache
http://www.seoconsultants.com/w3c/status-codes/
I hope you find this information helpful. Should you have any
questions about the material or links provided, please, feel free to
ask for clarification.
---larre
Answer Strategy | Search Terms
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301 redirect "iis 4"
301 redirect iis servers -apache
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Clarification of Answer by
larre-ga
on
10 Sep 2004 19:40 PDT
I accidentally left out the "fine print" disclaimer, consistent with our TOS.
Google Answers Researchers are independent research contractors, not
Google employees, and we don't speak officially for the company. Those
of us who answer this type of question on Google Answers are generally
knowledgeable about the search engines, and search engine
optimization. We offer personal insight regarding search placement and
processes, based on observation and experience, as well as familiarity
with search engine guidelines. I've spent a number of years as a web
developer, working in tandem with search optimization specialists.
---l
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