Is 301 redirects a deal breaker for Migrating content or moving to new software?
-
I have this forum with about 2 million posts for 16 years on root of the domain. I am looking to switch softwares but the top ones won’t help setup 301 redirects. But I can still migrate all my members and all my content (threads/posts), would Google still reindex all our content or if we don’t setup redirects would it really kill our entire traffic for a long time or maybe just a month or so? I really want to migrate to software that isn’t forum based but rather something that offers courses, chat, live video streaming, subscription based etc. and this is the only way to do so OR to set it up on an entirely new domain OR subdomain but to me that is like starting all over from scratch? I could archive the forum to read only and set it up on subdomain or another root domain - then on the archived forum setup banners and a pop up linking to the new site or new subdomain? . This is such a hard decision for us as the current forum we have had for so many years has lost members posting from 1k a day to just a handful a day, our fb group though gets 1k a day so I’m trying to revive a site into something more modern and has all the training features we can offer as well.
-
@Fabian001 said in Is 301 redirects a deal breaker for Migrating content or moving to new software?:
@vbsk there is quite alot of info that you have mentioned, so correct me if i don't understand the constraints here correctly.
From what i read, if you are able to migrate the content of the forum onto your new site and retain their existing urls, then no redirects are needed.
If you are switching domains, then you can set a sitewide rule via .htaccess file or equivalent to redirect to the new domain.
Essentially, so long as the content is still on your website with no change to URL (or there is a filepath/domain name to forward all redirects to via a few rules), then this should be fairly straightforward.
yes, that is correct
From what i read, if you are able to migrate the content of the forum onto your new site and retain their existing urls, then no redirects are needed.yes, that is correct
If you are switching domains, then you can set a sitewide rule via .htaccess file or equivalent to redirect to the new domain.yes, that is correct
Essentially, so long as the content is still on your website with no change to URL (or there is a filepath/domain name to forward all redirects to via a few rules), then this should be fairly straightforward.Here is an example of modification:
[www.culturism.net](link url) this is index
and product page
[https://www.culturism.net/concentrate-proteice/dymatize-iso-100-2-2-kg.html](link url)
in the htaccess file I took into account that the main domain is changing and I had another change, I gave up .html -
@vbsk you can make from .htaccess file redirect from the old script to the new one, you must respect a structure
-
@vbsk there is quite alot of info that you have mentioned, so correct me if i don't understand the constraints here correctly.
From what i read, if you are able to migrate the content of the forum onto your new site and retain their existing urls, then no redirects are needed.
If you are switching domains, then you can set a sitewide rule via .htaccess file or equivalent to redirect to the new domain.
Essentially, so long as the content is still on your website with no change to URL (or there is a filepath/domain name to forward all redirects to via a few rules), then this should be fairly straightforward.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Migrating Subfolder content to New domain Safely
Hello everyone, I'm currently facing a challenging situation and would greatly appreciate your expertise and guidance. I own a website, maniflexa.com, primarily focused on the digital agency niche. About 3 months ago, I created a subfolder, maniflexa.com/emploi/, dedicated to job listings which is a completely different niche. The subfolder has around 120 posts and pages. Unfortunately, since I created the subfolder, the rankings of my main site have been negatively impacted. I was previously ranking #1 for all local digital services keywords, but now, only 2 out of 16 keywords have maintained their positions. Other pages have dropped to positions 30 and beyond. I'm considering a solution and would like your advice: I'm planning to purchase a new domain and migrate the content from maniflexa.com/emploi/ to newdomain.com. However, I want to ensure a smooth migration without affecting the main domain maniflexa.com rankings and losing backlinks from maniflexa.com/emploi/ pages. Is moving the subfolder content to a new domain a viable solution? And how can I effectively redirect all pages from the subfolder to the new domain while preserving page ranks and backlinks?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | davidifaso
I wish they did, but GSC doesn't offer a solution to migration content from subfolder to a new domain. 😢 Help a fellow Mozer. Thanks for giving a hand.0 -
Migrating Subfolder content to New domain Safely
Hello everyone, I'm currently facing a challenging situation and would greatly appreciate your expertise and guidance. I own a website, maniflexa.com, primarily focused on the digital agency niche. About 3 months ago, I created a subfolder, maniflexa.com/emploi/, dedicated to job listings which is a completely different niche. The subfolder has around 120 posts and pages. Unfortunately, since I created the subfolder, the rankings of my main site have been negatively impacted. I was previously ranking #1 for all local digital services keywords, but now, only 2 out of 16 keywords have maintained their positions. Other pages have dropped to positions 30 and beyond. I'm considering a solution and would like your advice: I'm planning to purchase a new domain and migrate the content from maniflexa.com/emploi/ to newdomain.com. However, I want to ensure a smooth migration without affecting the main domain maniflexa.com rankings and losing backlinks from maniflexa.com/emploi/ pages. Is moving the subfolder content to a new domain a viable solution? And how can I effectively redirect all pages from the subfolder to the new domain while preserving page ranks and backlinks?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | davidifaso
I wish they did, but GSC doesn't offer a solution to migration content from subfolder to a new domain. 😢 Help a fellow Mozer. Thanks for giving a hand.0 -
Slug redirect to existing subdomain?
Hi everyone, I'm Levi, new here and new in the world of SEO so please don't judge if my question is silly. Back on the days when my website was built we tought of having subdomains to help with SEO. We have a couple subdomains set up https://stansted.tonorwich.uk, https://heathrow.tonorwich.uk, https://gatwick.tonorwich.uk, https://luton.tonorwich.uk etc .
Link Building | | Leviiii
We do have some content on these, but from seo perspective creating a slug and redirecting it to the subdomains would be beneficial? Would it make any difference at all, good or bad? Ex. Creating
https://tonorwich.uk/taxi-minibus-tofrom-stansted and redirecting it to https://stansted.tonorwich.uk
Will this help or we better create different content on the slugs? Waiting for your opinions.
Thanks in advance.0 -
Multilang site: Auto redirect 301 or 302?
We need to establish if 301 or 302 response code is to be used for our auto redirects based on Accept-Language header. https://domain.com
International SEO | | fJ66doneOIdDpj
30x > https://domain.com/en
30x > https://domain.com/ru
30x > https://domain.com/de The site architecture is set up with proper inline HREFLANG.
We have read different opinions about this, Ahrefs says 302 is the correct one:
https://ahrefs.com/blog/301-vs-302-redirects/
302 redirect:
"You want to redirect users to the right version of the site for them (based on location/language)." You could argue that the root redirect is never permanent as it varies based on user language settings (302)
On the other hand, the lang specific redirects are permanent per language: IF Accept-Language header = en
https://domain.com > 301 > https://domain.com/en
IF Accept-Language header = ru
https://domain.com > 301 > https://domain.com/ru So each of these is 'permanent'. So which is the correct?0 -
Moving to old site to new domain sub directory
Hi, we've moved our old site to a new domain but in a subdirectory (the shopping site has been consolidated into overarching company website's shopping section, thus the move to sub dir). Are 301 redirects from old URLs to new domain's subdirectory ex newsite.com/shopping/page-1/ sufficient for site migration? I wasn't able to use Google's site address change tool since we're moving to a subdirectory on the new domain. Thanks
Technical SEO | | SoulSurfer80 -
Moving Some Content From Page A to Page B
Page A has written content, pictures, videos. The written content from Page A is being moved to Page B. When Google crawls the pages next time around will Page B receive the content credit? Will there not be any issues that this content originally belonged to Page A? Page A is not a page I want to rank for (just have great pictures and videos for users). Can I 301 redirect from Page A to B since the written content from A has been deleted or no need? Again, I intent to keep Page A live because good value for users to see pictures and videos.
Technical SEO | | khi50 -
Redirects for new website
Hi Moz community,
Technical SEO | | JSimmons17
I'm a fairly new SEO Specialist with a brand new website. We initially had a very basic holding website until the fully functional website was completed. I have to do some redirects as we have both .html and .php files & we don't want to lose SEO value for specific pages (like the index, news, etc). I also want to redirect from a www url to a non-www url. I am trying to accomplish redirects with the following code: RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.mywebsite.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://mywebsite.com/$1 [R=301,L] RedirectMatch 301 /index.html (.*).(php|html) http://mywebsite.com/index.php RedirectMatch 301 /cupcakes-slideshow/glutenfree-slideshow.html (.*).(php|html) http://mywebsite.com/gluten-and-glutenfree.php RedirectMatch 301 /press.html (.*).(php|html) http://mywebsite.com/news-and-reviews.php Please let me know if I am on the right track. Thanks so much in advance!0 -
Google Confusion: Two Sites and a 301 Redirect.
Hi, We have a client who just sprang a new project on us. As always, they went ahead and did some stuff before bringing us into the loop! (oh the joy of providing SEO services!) Anyway, i'm pretty swamped right now and need some extra brains on this. Basically the client had www.examplesiteA.com online for many years (an affiliate site which had built up a strong brand in the industry). They have now decided to turn this affiliate site into a full blown service platform and so with the new site being built they 301'd the whole thing over to www.examplesiteB.com - this is where they want all the old affiliate content to be hosted. So essentially examplesiteA.com is now examplesiteB.com and a new site is being placed on examplesiteA.com - still with me? So this has all happened and a brand new website is on examplesiteA.com and the old examplesiteA is now sitting exactly as it used to, but on the examplesiteB domain. The 301 redirect has been removed and the new examplesiteA seems to have been crawled, but the homepage is not indexed. When you search for examplesiteA, examplesiteB is the top result. Now they are similar domain names and to be fair I have very little data at this point i.e. I don't know when the 301 redirect was removed and it maybe that this all fixes itself with time. How is link equity effected now that examplesiteA.com was 301 redirected to examplesiteB.com and cached in this way, but now the 301 redirect has been removed and does not exist? Would link juice have been diluted throughout the process? Obviously if we had been in on all this before anything was implemented we would have done things differently. Interested to hear what others would do coming in at this point. Thanks and look forward to the advice!
Technical SEO | | MarcLevy0