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Moving from Self Hosted to a Self Hosted Wordpress blog with a different URL

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Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

Hi Guys,

I came across many articles (even on this forum) and could not find any reference and hence created a new topic. 

I am planning to move my self hosted blog to another domain (indianomics.co.in), and I am looking for some help. I have done the following already.

  • Copied all Blog posts, pages, comments and other information to my new self hosted wordpress
  • Copied all statis files (images, files, attachments) etc. to this new location
  • Both Blogs are working fine, as per my expections
  • The Old blog content will be lying around till the new domain is completely set up

Now the issue: Google/Bing Juice

There are some posts that score really high on Google/Bing search results, and a change in domain will hurt surely. So the question really is, what can I do?

I read somewhere that 301 redirects do not work any longer for Google Search (and I have to do this for every post is another question, though I dont know how to go about?) I have been out side of this search business for a good 2 years and it is very very long time considering the leap that is taken, month on month. 

Any smart/intelligent guy/gal ready to offer two cents (thoughts) of theirs?

Replies 1 to 7 of 7

RioZee
from Out of this yEt in this World |

I can't say nothing on this, but I too need some help. My marriagebook site is suffering a host issues. How to tackle that.

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

Yo P! What help you need. Email/IndiMail me or if you are okay to discuss, post it here.

RioZee
from Out of this yEt in this World |

Thanks hemal, got the old host on track

Vishal Verma
from Bangalore |

301 redirect is best option... 301 redirect can be disastrous if not done correctly.. there is wordpress plugin (Redirection) which can easily do the job.. but I suugest to do if yourself without any plugin if know some coding.. there is guide to 301 redirect properly in moz blog. And about link juice.. it will come after some time..

as soon as Google Sees a 301 redirect to diiferent Url it starts deindexing previous web pages and indexing new url..

You have not still redirected old blog to new one.. its better to do it now...otherwise Google will think you have duplicate content on your blog

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

Yes I still have not done so, because I wanted to set this up first. Importing everything and checking if it is working perfectly fine, to my satisfaction. 

I found Joost De Valk's post on redirections - he gives a single code line to redirect all posts. Since I have about 258 posts, this could be much easier. I am not sure where to do this change though.

Vishal Verma
from Bangalore |

I think you should go with redirection plugin since it is easy and suggested by many seo professional.. 

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

I installed 'Redirection' plug-in, however I have to manually add all urls instead of letting add in bulk. For sure this will ensure I am cross checking all my links, but would be tedious. Any easy way out, but at the same time, secure? I have taken a data back up in any case. 

Aditya Dey
from Kolkata |

@Hemal-use 301 redirection..that's the best option you have..but you've to do it with utmost concern...otherwise the results won't be that much fruitful..u should change the CName records and A records with respect to your needs

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

Aditya - I havent heard anything to do with CName and A records yet in all the redirection discussions and threads I have read. Can you please explain the significance?

Hunky @ NexGenBikes.com
from Kolkata |

Have you checked this ??

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/83106?hl=en

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

Hunky - thanks! This was very helpful! :) 

RioZee
from Out of this yEt in this World |

Revived marriagebook to old host. 

Hunky @ NexGenBikes.com
from Kolkata |

@Rio..

Thanks for the idea of Indian data center.. I am presently running with hostgator and I will be applying to them to shift me to hostgator India as I see they allow that Smile

Animesh
from Mumbai |

You can try hosting.co.in or WPoets

Hunky @ NexGenBikes.com
from Kolkata |
  • Strict no for WPoets as I need a cPanel based host.. As later down the line I plan different things..
  • Yes, indeed as I am with HostGator, I will be using their Indian setup Sealed
Animesh
from Mumbai |

In that case, you can also try hosting.co.in

I have been with them for last more than a year and am quite happy with them.

Hunky @ NexGenBikes.com
from Kolkata |

@Animesh..

I am not happy with hostgator due to their ever decreasing speed but I have no option.. I hope switching to Indian data center based server may help a bit !!!

my domain is with Yahoo and for some reason it seems my panel is disabled there for changing settings, as soon as I troubleshoot that issue out, I shall be asking hostgator to switch me to an Indian server !!!

I hope, that 20% out of Indian traffic is not effected due to this..

By the way, I tested your blog with gtmetrix and it kind a places you in slower side.. not that fast Tongue out

Hunky @ NexGenBikes.com
from Kolkata |

on a second thought, your server is not in India as IP trace shows it going to US..

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

@Ani Hosting your site on Indian Data Center helps - some /all of the servers for many hosting companies in India like Hosting.co.in, use is virtual or hired servers from US datacenters, where they get a server for roughly INR 5000 a month, which is then used to host about 1000 or more websites which helps them keep the costs low. 

Hosting with Indian host helps get better ping rate, which means response from website is faster as compared to US sites. *However this will only be advantageous if the website is access from India

Hunky @ NexGenBikes.com
from Kolkata |

@Hemal..

Refer here, http://support.hostgator.com/articles/pre-sales-policies/hostgator-india-hostgator-in

HostGator claims to have data center facility in different cities of India along with an installation there in singapure also..

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

@Hunky, for sure a company like Hostgator can have their own data center.. I was talking about many small companies which provide hosting. 

Animesh
from Mumbai |

Hunky, if you are talking about SIP, its an issue with the blog template and not the datacenter. You can check my another blog which is relatively fast.

Hunky @ NexGenBikes.com
from Kolkata |

@Animesh..

I checked, all websites are hosted in US for you I guess..

Regarding Hostgator, my days seem to be short with them as I have to move, really fustrated with their load speed and now a days, down times Cry

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

Both Blogs are working fine, as per my expectations

Are they still working Hemal? I am getting 404 for almost all pages.

Who said 301 redirects won't work? Read this.

And finally, why do you think that you need to put a redirect for all your 258 posts individually. I am sure that there exists something like

Redirect hemalshah.net/blog/XYZ to indianomics.co.in/XYZ.

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

Hemal, try the following 

Redirect 301 /blog http://www.indianomics.co.in

It's working partially - I created 3 files /hem/a.txt, /hem/b.txt and /hem/c.txt and used the following

Redirect 301 /hem http://www.indiblogger.in
  • /hem/a.txt is getting redirected to http://www.indiblogger.in//a.txt 
  • /hem/b.txt is getting redirected to http://www.indiblogger.in/b.txt 
  • /hem/c.txt is getting redirected to http://www.indiblogger.in/c.txt 

I don't know why a.txt is getting redirected to www.indiblogger.in//a.txt instead of www.indiblogger.in/a.txt

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

Ranjith, since it was taking time for me to find out a better way to redirect my blog posts, I decided to remove content, so nothing wrong in you getting 404 errors. The posts, images and data are simply not there. 

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

Thanks for helping me with Redirect 301. The problem I am struggling with is the number of entries I will have to make. That, will be 258 posts, 8 pages.

I did not understand the double "//" myself. It normally does not affect the functioning of the site btw. 

I also have another task at hand, which is the URLs that are linked from images, which are hardlinked that I will need to change manually. That way, slowly I am removing references to my old URL.

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

You will have to make only one entry for redirecting all your 250+ pages : 

Redirect 301 /blogs http://www.indianomics.co.in

The above entry will redirect all your 250+ pages.

And I think that there is no need to change the URL's of images. Simply copy wp-contents/uploads/ to the root of your new website.

http://hemalshah.net/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/1323481_galaxy.jpg will get redirected to http://www.indianomics.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/1323481_galaxy.jpg. So, the old image URL's still work. Smile

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

I will try this, Ranjith and let you know if that worked. 

About images, both my domains are pointed on the same server, and hence source "src" image path should not be an issue. The issue was with hyperlinks on each image. Everytime I upload a image, by default, wordpress allows me to link the image to open in full. Even though they open on hemalshah.net/blogs url, I do not want to have images placed in two locations. I might as well delete the images from hemalshah.net/blogs and keep only one set on indianomics.co.in site.

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

I do not want to have images placed in two locations.

You will be placing the images only at one location on your server ( indianomics.co.in/wp-uploads/... )

.

And if you don't like the images being linked to hemalshah.net/blog/ which will redirect to indianomics.co.in/wp-uploads/ , then write a program which will replace the old image URL's in all your posts with your new URL's in all the posts present in your database.

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

I think this is not working...

# BEGIN WordPress

RewriteEngine On

RewriteBase /blogs/

RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteRule . /blogs/index.php [L]

# END WordPress

Redirect 301 /blogs http://www.indianomics.co.in

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

I think, you need to remove everything from your .htaccess ( starting from # BEGIN WordPress to # END Wordpress ) because those rules conflict with the one I said. And keep only that single line in your htaccess.

Ritu KT
from New Delhi |

Hi, I've read that Google also suggests 301 redirects in cases like yours. And they specify that it is better to have individiual redirects in place to have a good user experience rather than having every old post point to the new homepage. If it is too much work, you can redirect old posts to "related category" on the new site. 

Hope this helps!

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

Hi Ritu,

thanks for your comments. Yes I agree with you that it should go to individual pages, and that is my intent as well. I was just trying to see if there is a faster way than listing down each url, so that if anyone tries accessing hemalshah.net/blogs (and any sub pages) he /she will be automatically redirected to indianomics.co.in