Redirect from a previous url

[Gokart]

Hi - newbie question

I have a customer who's had previous versions of his website.

Previously it was known as "princess-interiors.co.uk" (been around for a few years) and is now "princess-design.co.uk" (been around also for a few years).

New site is WordPress - what would be the best way to redirect (I have access to the previous version of the site which is still hosted).

I expect it's to use 301, but how would I do that (step by step), and does www. versus non-www need addressing (and how).

Really concerned, as this site has gone to zero organic visits!!

Hoping somebody can help.

Thanks

[Verve-Innovation]

HI Mark,

What CMS is your Previous version of site ? Is it wordpress or using PHP.  If you find yourself in a situation where you need to redirect a PHP web page that is outside your WordPress installation, you can use a PHP redirect.

PHP redirect.

You can redirect a PHP page by adding this line of code to the header:

header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");

header("Location: http://www.yournewwebsite.com");

?>

Note that the “301 Moved Permanently” line is necessary to advise search engines that you are using a 301 redirection. You also need to ensure that this code is placed at the top of the page to ensure the redirection works correctly.

If you would like to use redirection within a theme or plugin you are developing, you can use the WordPress wp_redirect function.

Redirect a Page Using a WordPress Plugin:

One easy solution is Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin. The plugin allows you to perform 301, 302, 307, or meta refresh redirects. Redirection is a another great plugin that features 404 page monitoring. It will show you exactly what pages are generating 404 page errors and allow you to create 301, 302, and 307 redirects, for each of those links.

[Gokart]

Hi - thanks for the reply

The previous site was html - there are two points...

1. I understand that it's best to map each page using a 301? - do I do that on the previous website?

2. should I redirect to www or non-www version of new site?

Cheers

M

[Verve-Innovation]

Hi Mark,

1. Yes, You have to do that in Previous website from where you want the redirection to happen.

2.  Anything whichever works best for you. But Fix one and work on it. check in google which version of your site is indexed more by "site:www.domain.com" and "site:domain.com" . Its easy to decide this way.

Note: Since its wordpress you can do it in the wordpress settings back end.

Related Thread here :

https://moz.com/community/q/changing-url-from-non-www-to-www

[Gokart]

Sorted - thanks