Completely new website

User avatar
silverback
5StarLounger
Posts: 771
Joined: 29 Jan 2010, 13:30

Completely new website

Post by silverback »

I used to look after a website for a walking club. Times have moved on and another walker has produced a completely new website i.e. the whole of my website is no longer required. The club uses http://www.123-reg.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; to host the initial index page and (obviously) my website is located in my ISPs webspace; the new website is on some other ISPs webspace. Clearly, some redirection is required.
I have Googled for info on this and it seems that a "301 permanent redirection is required". I dont' understand all the ins and outs of this, though.
The index.html page of the new website will have exactly the same URL as the index.html page of my old website - because it's hosted on 123-reg which only switches to the target website when am 'Enter website' link is clicked.
Some questions, please, loungers.
1. How should the 301 redirect be handled?
2. I want to delete my webspace in the near future - I'm thinking about changing ISPs anyway. How long will my old website have to stay on line?
3. What happens if I just delete my old website now?
:help:
Thanks
Silverback

User avatar
DaveA
GoldLounger
Posts: 2599
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 15:26
Location: Olympia, WA

Re: Completely new website

Post by DaveA »

With the newer browsers which do NOT like redirected web sites, I would look into to getting a host that will do what you want without any redirection.
Now for you questions.
1) I would not use any, see above and number 2 and 3.
2) For as long as the other site is neded to have access.
3) All connections the othe site would be lost.
I am so far behind, I think I am First :evilgrin:
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

User avatar
silverback
5StarLounger
Posts: 771
Joined: 29 Jan 2010, 13:30

Re: Completely new website

Post by silverback »

I obvioiusly did not explain the problem clearly enough first time, so I'll have another go.
Our walking club has a website hosted on http://www.123-reg.co.uk;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; this enables us to publish a club website of www.clubname.org.uk which shields our end users from knowing that the actual webpages are moving around on different servers and in different peoples' webspace . This is working fine and there is no requirement to change it.
My (now redundant) website has been around for a number of years and so has built up high search engine rankings. This means that when someone searches for a walking club in our area, my website is top of the list. Clearly, we do not want to lose those rankings.
I am not skilled in web development, but I think if I just delete my website a) searches will get Error 404 problems when following the link because the website is no longer there and b) the search engine rankings will be catastrophically affected.
So a proposal has been made that my website has to remain (in some form) and have a 301 permanent redirect put on it. It is claimed that this will be recognised by search engine spiders and over a period of time, my URL will be dropped in favour of the new website's URL.
My questions are, then :
Is this the right thing to do to preserve our search engine rankings?
What exactly should go in the 301 redirect? (EG is is only the index page which needs to be referenced)
How long will my old website have to remain online before it's no longer needed?
Thanks
Silverback