Moving, or how to move from domain to domain so as not to lose anything along the way. Moving to another domain Transferring to a new domain
Attention! In 99% of cases, when a site moves to a new domain, it completely or partially falls out of the search results (for 1-2 months). So before you change domain name, think very carefully, weighing all the pros and cons. And we will tell you how to minimize the loss of traffic and key website indicators.
Important! For the first few months (maximum - up to six) after moving to a new domain, leave the site working on the old domain - do not delete it immediately. Therefore, plan to move to another domain about six months before the current domain expires. This will make it easier for users to adapt, and links to the old site may remain on other resources that users will follow.
When will the new site appear in the search results and in what positions?
It will appear in about a month and a half (both in Yandex and Google). Positions usually return to their previous levels, but over time (from 2 weeks to several months). But all this is subject to the correct move.
Will TIC and PR indicators return after moving the site?
If you do everything right, they will come back. Yandex usually returns the TIC after 1.5 months, and Google from 2 to 12 months (depending on the frequency of PageRank updates).
If I bought a used domain, will this affect the move?
The most important thing is that the domain is not on any blacklists or blocked by the registrar due to violation of its policies (posting prohibited content, SPAM, etc.). It is advisable to buy a domain that has been used in a similar field of activity to yours. But keep in mind that if you bought a ready-made website and uploaded new content to it, it will be re-indexed, that is, positions in the search engine are lost. If you bought a ready-made website and change the content gradually, this can protect you from a sharp loss of position in search engines. If the domain name is perfect for your project, but it has not been used for a long time, it doesn’t matter, buy it. After all, all indicators can be returned in a fairly short time.
By the way, using the web archive you can check the history search queries domain. We highly recommend doing this before purchasing.
How to properly move to a new domain?
1. Select and buy a domain
We have prepared tips for choosing a domain. If you decide to change hosting, then you will find tips on choosing it. After purchasing, you need to upload an exact copy of the old site to the new domain. At this stage, a problem often arises that some of the links, instead of a relative path (/razdel/page1.html), are written as an absolute path (for example, http://oldsite.info/razdel/page1.html). Such links will constantly return the user to the old site (if it is working), which will not be pleasant search robot when scanning.
This issue can be resolved in two ways:
- manually change links (to find them you can use free program Xenu Link Sleuth), but if your site has hundreds of pages, then the replacement process will turn into torture.
- Before uploading the database to a new domain, open it text editor(it is advisable to use Notepad++ so as not to break the encoding), and using AutoCorrect we change the old site name to a new one (in our example we look for - oldsite.info, change to - mysite.com).
After this, we check the functionality of several links manually, and the rest by repeated use of Xenu Links Sleuth.
2. The need to change the design
If you want to change not only the domain name (move from oldsite.info.info to mysite.com), but also change the site design or its structure, then it is better to break it down into 2 stages. Those. first move to a new domain, and after a while (about a few months) change the site design.
3. Redirect users to the new domain
The move itself consists of automatically redirecting users from all pages of the old site to the corresponding pages of the new site. Moreover, you can’t just take and redirect all visitors only to home page new site. It is imperative that the redirection occurs from one page to another. Correct example: with old page http://oldsite.info/razdel/page1.html redirect to new page http://mysite.com/razdel/page1.html. To do this automatically, you need to write the following lines in the .htaccess file on the old site:
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %(REQUEST_FILENAME) robots.txt$
RewriteRule ^([^/]+) $1 [L]RewriteCond %(HTTP_HOST) ^site\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://site.org/$1
RewriteCond %(HTTP_HOST) ^www.site\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://site.org/$1
Moreover, this code takes into account the fact that visitors can enter the address of the old site both with www and without it. In any case, the redirection will occur to the new site. After installing the code, be sure to check whether the correct redirection occurs from the old site to the new one (check not only the main page, but also several pages from different sections).
4. Set up the robots.txt file
In the robots.txt file (both on the old site and on the new one), add a new line (or replace the current one):
Sitemap: http://mysite.com/sitemap.xml
where http://mysite.com/sitemap.xml is the path to the xml map of the new site.
5. We wait until search engines merge domains
Be patient and don’t panic when a site disappears from searches for a month or more. If you did everything correctly, then your site will definitely return to search results. If after 2 months your site is still not in the search, then ask a question on the Google webmaster forum or write to Platon Shchukin ( technical support Yandex). To do this, go to Yandex Webmaster, then “My Sites” and select your site from the list. After that, in the lower right corner, click “Ask a question about the site to support.”
How to link sites on Google?
This search engine allows you to merge two sites with the same content and replace them in search results old site to new requires the following:
- add both sites to Webmaster Tools(IDV)
- confirm rights to them (this is done in IFDA)
- submit a new site for crawling (how to do this) and wait for it to complete
- It’s also a good idea to notify Google that your site is moving (how to do this)
- in IDV upload the sitemap file for the new site
- set up a 301 redirect (we described how to do this in point 3)
Taking part in an online meeting between Google and webmasters, we were able to find out one more thing that can be useful and helps minimize the time that sites are put together and are not listed in search results. About 2 weeks before the move, on each page of the old site, between the tags, you need to place the rel="canonical" attribute, which will point to a page with identical content on the new site. This attribute tells the search engine that there are two pages with the same content and points to the most important (canonical) page, in your opinion, which Google should show in its results. You can either do this manually by placing the following line on each page of the old site:
where http://mysite.com/page1.html is the address of the page of the new site, the content of which is identical to the page of the old site.
If you have many pages and the site runs on a CMS, then find the file in which all your pages are created and insert the following line between the tags:
"/>
It will automatically substitute the name of the current page and generate the correct link. But don’t forget to make sure that the urls of the old and new pages match. For example, the old page is http://oldsite.info/razdel/page1.html and the new page is http://mysite.com/razdel/page1.html.
How to merge sites in Yandex
This search engine has a simple list of requirements:
- add both sites to Yandex Webmaster and confirm rights to them
- robots.txt files on the old and new sites must be identical
- set a 301 redirect (we described how to do this in point 3) or in the robots.txt file, specify the address of the new site in the Host directive
This point is very important and deserves special attention. For Yandex, both of these methods are equivalent (301 redirect and Host directive) and we have verified that you can choose any of them to move to a new domain. The only difference is that a 301 redirect will immediately begin to redirect visitors from the old site to the new one and, thereby, inform all search engines that the site has moved to a new domain and needs to be replaced in the search results. And the Host directive will indicate the move only to Yandex, and besides, your visitors will still go to the old site.
Webmasters use this opportunity if they do not want to risk everything at once. Those. they specify the Host directive, and the old site still works as before. In a week or two, Yandex will throw out the old site from the search and after the same time will add a new one there. But unlike a 301 redirect, which would cause the old site to drop out of all search engines, the Host directive makes the site drop out only from Yandex. This method has, of course, one drawback. When a new site appears in Yandex, Google will still have the old one, and you will still have to use a 301 redirect.
If you still decide to use the Host directive, then write the following in the robots.txt files (on both sites):
where mysite.com is the address of the new site.
Often site owners want to change the site domain. And very often they worry about the position of their resource, its performance and visitors who may be “lost” when changing the domain name.
In this article we will talk about how the procedure of transferring a website from domain to domain occurs, how it affects the site, and what main nuances should be taken into account when transferring.
The reasons why website owners decide to move a website to another domain may be different. I will highlight the main ones:
- I want a more relevant domain name.
- The organization changed its name.
- I want a more authoritative top-level domain.
- We decided to change the domain to a national one (for example, the website of a Belarusian store is transferred from the domain to .com to .by).
- Transferring a site from HTTP to HTTPs, etc.
So, the decision that the site needs to be moved has nevertheless been made and the question arises whether the site’s position will be lost, whether visitors will leave and whether the TCI indicator will decrease.
Yandex itself writes that when resources move from one domain to another, the resource’s position in search results may change, and the number of pages indexed by the Yandex robot may also change.
Yandex.Webmaster also says that changes in the position of the site and indexed pages will be kept to a minimum if the Yandex robot identifies the new site domain as the main mirror for the old one.
It is possible that when a site moves to another domain, the site will lose its position or fall out of the search index; Citation index and PR indicators will decrease.
But, if you do everything correctly, then in a month all the indicators will be the same as before, the positions will return to their places.
Correctly configured domain merging using a 301 redirect will help to completely transfer all the indicators of the old one to the new site address (individual pages). This will be considered a complete merging of site domains.
If after two months your site is not present in search results, then ask a question in Google.Webmaster or contact Yandex technical support. To do this, in Yandex.Webmaster you need to select “Feedback” → “Change site address, mirror” → “Change address and protocol”, from the drop-down list select “Site domain name has changed”, at the bottom of the text there will be a link “After a month and a half, site address hasn't changed." Then you will need to fill out a form like this:
If you are still ready to move your site to another domain, without fear of temporary changes in performance or a decrease in rankings, you need to carefully plan and carry out the transfer.
Moving a website from one domain to another involves automatically redirecting site visitors from the pages of the old domain name to the same pages of the new domain.
So, to carry out the move, you must complete the following points:
You need to add both site addresses to Yandex.Webmaster and confirm ownership of them.
Make sure that the robots.txt files on the old and new domain names are the same. In the robots.txt file for the Host, specify the domain name of your new site as the main mirror, or set up a 301 redirect.
Notify Yandex about the change in the site address. To do this, you need to use the “Site Moving” tool. This tool allows site owners to inform Yandex about a change in domain, protocol used, and select the preferred display of the site in search results - with or without www.
Set up and check the 301 redirect for all pages, images, videos and other files from the old domain to the new one.
In order to set up a 301 redirect, you need to write in the .htaccess file on the domain from which you want to redirect visitors:
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteEngine off
This rule is necessary to exclude the robots.txt file from the redirect, so that when accessing the file, Yandex sees that the host has changed.
And then the redirect itself:
RewriteCond %(HTTP_HOST) ^site\.com
RewriteCond %(HTTP_HOST) ^www.site\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://site.org/$1
Be sure to check that everything is working correctly. We advise you to look at the redirection of the main page and several internal pages of the site. It’s better to check not only in the browser, but with the server’s response, because Browsers often cache information and can be misleading.
Fulfill the requirements of Yandex and Google Webmasters for moving the domain.
For Yandex. The requirements for Yandex.Webmaster are simple:
Read more about moving from domain to domain on Yandex.
You need to add a site on the old and new domain name to Webmaster Tools. We recommend adding all 4 addresses, both with and without www.
Confirm rights to both resources.
Then you need to scan the site at the new address.
Notify Google that your site is moving to another address.
Upload your new domain map (sitemap.xml) from Google Webmaster Tools.
Glue the mirrors together using a 301 redirect.
After the site relocation procedure is completed, we advise you to regularly monitor the positions and indicators of the new and old domains until the old site disappears from the index and the indicators and positions of the new one are restored.
Let me remind you that if you did everything correctly, the losses on your site will be short-term and insignificant. Still have questions related to your domain? In this article you will find the answers.
If you are still not confident in your abilities and are afraid to carry out the website relocation procedure incorrectly, you can use the services of our specialists. Contact us!
Quick navigation on this page:
Sometimes a situation arises when it is necessary to transfer a website to another domain - this may be required for a variety of reasons: you decided to take a more beautiful and sonorous name, your old domain fell under the AGS and you are thereby trying to bypass it (this is a topic for a separate article) or simply your domain, although not under the AGS, is not indexed for a long time (this, unfortunately, happens - Yandex support writes that everything is in order and you need to wait, but the wait can last for several months).
We will not delve into the possible reasons for changing the domain name, but will immediately move on to what actions you will need to take.
Transfer files and database
The first thing you need to start with is to create a full copy of your resource on a new domain. This is done quite simply - you copy all the files from the old hosting and upload them to the new one (if everything happens within the same hosting, then you just need to copy them to another folder, which is linked to the new domain name on the hosting.
By the way, if you do not change the hosting provider, then most likely you will not have to transfer the database at all. This depends on the settings of the hoster, but almost everywhere the database is tied to your account, and not to a specific site, that is, it will work exactly the same on a new site if it is hosted in the same account. This is very convenient, since you don’t even have to rewrite the data to connect to the database.
If you move to another hosting, then you need to save a database dump - this is easiest to do through the phpMyAdmin service on your hosting (the “Export” tab).
After everything has been transferred, register the DNS for the new domain, wait until they are updated and the site becomes available on the new domain name. Check that everything works without errors. After this, you can proceed to the next stage.
Redirect from old domain
To do this, you need to upload the .htaccess file to the root directory of your old site (if it already exists, then, of course, there is no need to upload it).
In this file you need to write the following code:
RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %(HTTP_HOST) ^oldsite.ru RewriteRule (.*) http://newsite.ru/$1
This is the so-called 301 redirect - it informs that the page has been permanently moved to a new address. Search engines perceive it quite adequately - don’t be afraid of any sanctions. The weight on external links should also be transferred through this redirect to new pages.
In principle, at this point the transfer of your project can be considered complete - your resource will be available at the new address, when visiting the pages of the old address, both users and search engine robots will be redirected to the new address.
There is only one small, but quite important detail left...
Taking care of visitors
If your resource has at least a minimal core of regular visitors, take care of them and notify them that your site has moved to a new domain - at least post an ad about it for a while.
If you have subscribers (via rss, newsletters, email, social networks, etc.) - be sure to write them a letter informing them of this fact.
UPDATE: A question arose regarding the fact that on site pages many links and pictures can be written by pointing to the old domain (for example, in WordPress, a picture is always inserted by specifying the full path indicating the domain). There are two solutions here: if there are few articles, manually correct each of them; if there are many articles, download the MySQL database dump, open it in the editor (even notepad will do), auto-replace “olddomain.ru” with “newdomain.ru”, and then upload a new database dump to the hosting (important: be sure to make a backup of the old version of the database before this operation, in case something goes wrong). You can also optimize the pictures, as we wrote about.
