URL redirecting domains

[SorinaDascalu]

From what I saw Google makes efforts in identifying sneaky domain redirection techniques, so I believe when you do a legit one like you described above there are no risks.

As for domain redirects/301 redirects - these aren't different redirect types, just different way of saying it. What a consider a "domain redirect" must be a 301 redirect in order to pass link juice. If you have doubts about how these work, contact your hosting provider to make sure what they call "domain redirect" is actually a 301 http responce status code that the server sends out for that domain.

[Dan-Lawrence]

Many Thanks Sorina !!

I thought 301 redirects are on the .htaccess file which requires a file lstill to be on a server containing the 301 instruction.  Since the server/hosting is being deleted then i cant see how its possible to leave a 301 redirect on there and the redirect hence must take place in/on the dns record ?

[Aleyda]

Hi Dan,

What is is important in these types of scenarios is that you make sure that the redirects are relevant from a user and SEO perspective, since although the link popularity from the old pages will pass by just 301-redirecting them to their new location, what it is important to preserve is also the relevance of these redirects, since these old pages could be already not only externally linked, but also ranking for keywords relevant to their specific content, so if you do a "bulk" redirect to a new page that is not optimized for these keywords (and is very unlikely that a single page is optimized and relevant for a high diverse amount of content and keywords that are at the moment covered through many different pages) you will lose those rankings.

Because of this, take a look at which are the keywords bringing organic traffic to the "old pages" you want to redirect and what you should do to preserve this organic traffic is to redirect them to the new pages on your new domain that also cover these topics, so they will still be relevant for them and when you redirect to them, you won't not only refer the popularity but also keep the rankings and make sure that your users are finding that they were looking for (or at least, something similar).

In case you need to provide information to your users telling them that they're being redirected since the old pages have been migrated because of an acquisition, you can do it so through a message "banner" like the one that Yahoo uses here to warn visitors that they have been redirected to another language version, in a non-intrusive way.

The best way to implement 301-redirects is server side. In case you're using an Apache server then you will need to edit your .htaccess file that you can access easily via FTP for example, and should be located in your root domain.

If you would redirect your old domain pages to a new one preserving the URL structure you would be able to do this with rewriting rules, very straightforward in this case:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.olddomain.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Nonetheless, if you need to implement them in a page to page level, since the URL names of in the new domain are not the same than in the old one, you might need to implement them in a page to page basis:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^oldurl.html$ http://www.newdomain.com/newurl.html

I hope this helps!

Aleyda

[Dan-Lawrence]

Hi Aleyda

Thanks so much for spending the time to write such a detailed and informative reply

However its the domain being redirected not the pages, since all the old pages have been removed from the web & hosting shut down (due it being an acquisition & not a migration). This means no opportunity for a .htaccess file as far as i understand since that requires a server to sit on doesnt it? and there isnt one anymore.

So we have just redirected the old domain to a landing page on the acquiring companies website via standard domain forwarding within the dns control panel.  Do you know if this will act like a 301 i.e. transfer the old domains authority to the landing page ?

Many Thanks

Dan

[Aleyda]

Hi Dan! Thanks for the clarification. This change it all really and is pretty straightforward then: You should directly go to your domain registrar and set the "Domain Forwarding" option to go to the new domain.

[Dan-Lawrence]

Thanks Aleyda

Its going to redirect/forwarding to a specific landing page on the new domain, not the domain itself

Many Thanks

Dan

[Aleyda]

Hi Dan, my domain registrar let me forward to any URL (not necessarily another domain root) so there shouldn't be an issue to do it. I recommend that you check with your registrar if you can do the same with yours. Thanks

[Dan-Lawrence]

Thanks Aleyda

yes have done this already

Im just trying to establish if this acts like a 301 still in regard to the passing of old domains authority to the new url being fwd'd to ?

Thanks

Dan

[Aleyda]

Your registrar usually gives you the option to choose if it's a temporary or a permanent situation so it forwards with 302 or 301 depending on that. Nonetheless, you can check directly yourself very easily with: http://web-sniffer.net/ by taking a look at the HTTP response header of the forwarded domain (and see if it's a 301). Good luck with the new domain

[Dan-Lawrence]

Good stuff ! thanks for all your help Aleyda