Handling Changes to Your Domain Name with 301 Redirects
Companies change domain names for reasons that include, but not limited to aesthetic concerns. For example, a customer could easily remember and type “shoesforyou” rather than “a-shoe-for-you”. Other reasons may include company name change, closure or acquisition of or by another company. Such changes matter for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) because if not handled properly, then what could be the optimized indexing and rankings the old domain gained from search engines, may just go to waste. When a change of a domain is inevitable, then a suitable plan must be put into place. 301 Redirect via Your Hosting
For example, the company that runs “shoe-for-you.com” abruptly decides to change the domain to shoesforyou.com without carefully mapping the old and new URLs as well as ensuring that redirects are implemented, then customers may just find themselves on a dead end when trying to supposedly order a dozen pair of shoes online. When no redirect to the new domain name is implemented, then customers would get page error message such as “We’re sorry but the page you requested cannot be found.”
A redirect or a 301 redirect, in SEO parlance, simply means moving the old website to the new one. Therefore, this ensures that users of the old site, are not lost but are routed to the new website. On an Apache HTTP Server (one of the many existing web servers today), a redirect is done by creating an “.htcaccess” file(a file that provides a means to modify configuration in a directory and its sub-directories) in the root directory. For example:
A line of code can be added to an existing “.htcaccess” file to indicate a permanent redirect. It looks something like this:
Redirect permanent /http://www.shoesforyou.com/
Also, 301 redirects can be placed on a particular page, looking something like this: Redirect permanent/sneakers/leather.html/stilettos.html
When this is done, it is recommended for the .htcaccess file to be encoded using ASCII (computer coding that uses characters) instead of binary ( also a computer coding that uses the numbers 01). And for security purposes, the folder on your web server should be CHMODed to 644 (this is a command that tells the system the level of access a user has to it). In this case, 644 means only the owner can make a change and users can only read the file. While this may seem easy, it gets a little complicated as new concerns arise, like “must everything be redirected in one go?”. The answer is usually, no. This is to make sure that users would have a convenient experience when trying to visit the website. While redirecting every single page of the old site to the new one avoids error 404s or “Page Cannot be Found” errors, what may be compromised is the page’s relevance. It is better to redirect part of the site first and ensure that they’re functioning as desired before redirecting everything. One has to make sure that a user trying to access a certain page on the site would be directed to a similar and relevant page in the new site. In an SEO perspective, doing this would also retain the search engine ranking in terms of relevancy.
Internal and External Links
Internal Links and External Links are exactly what they seem to mean. Internal links are links to any of the pages within the site that bring a user to another part of the same page or another page in the same site, when clicked. An external link is a link found on another website that directs the customer to your website, or a link on your site pointing to a page outside your site. Among the two types, the internal links maybe the easiest to manage. Webmasters of a site migrating to a new domain name must check each page for any existing internal links, update them to make sure that when accessed, it doesn’t direct the user to an “Error 404” Page, keeping in mind the ultimate rule, “must be relevant”
Whenever possible, especially if close ties have been built, you may contact the webmasters of the sites that link to you (or as discussed, sites where you have inbound links on) and request for an update of these links to make sure all of these point to the new website. Doing this will prevent broken links, especially when most of these links are absolute rather than relative. Once everything’s been checked, it is recommended to use the services of a link checker just to make sure that nothing has been overlooked. Link checkers may be downloaded for free with minimal system requirements.
Google Webmaster Tools
Knowing the implications of what a domain name change would do to a company, Google, one of the top search engines, came up with tools and processes that can aid companies changing their domain names. These tools are included in the umbrella brand Webmaster’s Tools.
• Change of Address Tool. This notifies them that you are changing domain name or Web address. However, it should be noted that only site owners can use it thus, ensuring security.
• Add A Site Button. This button within the Webmaster’s Tools can be accessed with your Google account and password. From here, the Site Verification page opens and you are prompted to enter the site name.
• Fetch as Google Tool. This tool submits a request to Google for them to crawl your selected URLs, although the search engine doesn’t guarantee that the URL would be indexed.
• Sitemap Submission Tool. This is also found in Webmaster’s Tools under “Optimization” and then “Sitemaps”. Here, you will submit the location of your Sitemap ( a list of the pages or URLs) to Google so they would become aware of it. Data such as content of a page may be included here, so take advantage of it.
As much as SEO is not a guarantee to new sites as it is for retaining search engine rankings of an old site moved to a new location under a new domain name, putting up an action plan collaborated by all parties concerned- The website owner, the web design team and the host provider, would at least make the change a little less challenging.