Changing domain names for an existing website

[arnold]

We are changing our domain name from sprague-database.org to spragueproject.org to better reflect what our website has become.

When we began in 1996, we were no more than a database on the Internet. We called ourselves the "Composite Sprague Data Base" reflecting our inclusion of all Sprague and Sprague-derivative surnames in a Legacy database.

In our 14 years on the Internet, we have become far more than just a database and at some point along the way we began to call our website, "The Sprague Project."

Sooooo, what are the pitfalls that we should avoid in implementing a change in domain name?

My plans are

(1) to place a new/single webpage on our old domain name/URL which will automatically redirect folks to the new URL in 10 to 15 seconds. The text on this new webpage will explain that we have a new Internet address and that our visitors should begin to use the new address. There will also be a prominent link on this webpage for visitors to click, if they do not want to wait that 10-15 seconds.

(2) to keep the old domain name/URL for several/many years, so as to not lose anyone.

(3) have our host copy all the files/tables from our old website to our new website.

Thank you for your help,

Arnold

[theKiwi]

(3) have our host copy all the files/tables from our old website to our new website.

You might just use a 301 redirect to instantly transport people to the new domain, and to tell the bots that it has moved.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/b...mp;answer=93633

has information about this. You can also use it in conjunction with a rewrite rule to rewrite all the URLs coming to the old site to the new site - eg

http://roger.lisaandroger.com/getperson.ph...&tree=Roger could be automatically rewritten to http://NewRoger.lisaandroger.com/getperson...&tree=Roger

if I wanted to. I think this is correct - at least it works when I just tried it now

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond testing.lisaandroger.com/%{QUERY_STRING} ^
RewriteRule (.*) http://NewRoger.lisaandroger.com/$1 [R=301,L]

This takes any URL that has testing.lisaandroger.com in it, and rewrites it to and then appends back onto it the query string. The 301 tells the bots it's a permanent move.

Roger

[arnold]

Roger,

This is terrific, so helpful, and will save me lots of grief.

Arnold

[John]

I just wanted to add that this appears to have worked for me, also. I know this is an old thread, but I had an issue where I wanted to move TNG to a new domain, elliottfamilyhistory.com, where before it was on jdelliott.org.

I went into Cpanel for my jdelliott.org domain, added a redirect to elliottfamilyhistory.com/tng/ and did a Google search for "jdelliott.org William Brewster". The old site showed up in the search results, but when I clicked on the link, I was directly taken to the new domain, but otherwise the same page.

Any idea how long it will take Google to update its links? Days, weeks, months? Do I need to actually keep the old TNG up, or can I delete everything in the directory, since I set it up as a permanent redirect?