Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Moving from free host to paid host...keep Google?

Sdashiki

Sdashiki

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 11, 2005
3,529
11
Behind the lens
Im kind of getting frustrated with my free host 110mb.com

They kick ass...when up. When down...its anyone's guess when your server will be back up. Im starting to think $5/mo for another service isnt so bad (hostgator seems good enough for me).

The question I have isnt about which host to use or who is best, i can still research that.

What about my google ranking and any of the links on other sites?

All of them point to mydomain.110mb.com/mypage.php etc

And the new page(s) would be mydomain.com/mypage.php

I understand .htaccess but not when I no longer have the original website?

I can keep the 110mb account to bounce people to my new site...but isnt there a better way to do this?
 
angelwatt

angelwatt

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
7,852
9
USA
You can either use .htaccess to automatically redirect people from the old site to the new one, or you can create a page at the old site that explains to the visitor that you've moved and they should update their bookmark or whatever. That explanation could be put on either site really. The .htaccess technique may be better from the web spider perspective because it will tell them the pages have moved and may help you keep some of your ranking. Here's an article on it, and be sure to use a 301 (permanent) redirect and not a 302 (temporary).
 
Sdashiki

Sdashiki

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 11, 2005
3,529
11
Behind the lens
When I went from .html to .php I used 301 changes and they work great.

but I dont want to keep anything (for long term) on the free server when I move.

obviously, I will need to leave an htaccess there to redirect for awhile...but how long is enough before I finally say goodbye to the free server?

The reason for leaving is uptime, and if its down during a needed redirect, people wont get anywhere.

My site is "counted on" by some people in the Polaroid community, to change it so that links passed and tweeted dont end up in 404 land...is my biggest concern.
 
S

snberk103

macrumors 603
Oct 22, 2007
5,503
91
An Island in the Salish Sea
Can't help with the redirect question, but as a photographer and fellow collector of Polaroids (my fondness is for SX-70 cameras, and manipulating the images) I will recommend a hosting solution for you to research.

Look at http://www.doteasy.com. I have been with them for years and years. I can't remember the last time they were down, and even the free hosting option gets lots of features - and email support.

Good Luck.
 
S

splitpea

macrumors 65816
Oct 21, 2009
1,134
396
Among the starlings
Yup, you definitely get what you pay for with free hosting.

In terms of SEO... for Google at least, I believe Google Webmaster Tools has a way to indicate that you're moving pages or a whole site.

Especially since it's free, I'd keep the old account up for a couple months with 301 redirects to the same pages on the new site (which will cause both users and search engines to be automatically directed to the new domain), and put a prominent notice up on the new site announcing the domain change and recommending people update their links and bookmarks, etc.

As far as existing tweets and such, there's nothing you can do about that.
 
Sdashiki

Sdashiki

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 11, 2005
3,529
11
Behind the lens
The main reason Im going to move my site from free to paid is the uptime, and lots of people seem to rely on it being up.

So, my new question concerns when I do move and have redirects from the old free site...and the old free site goes down (again, why im moving to paid) will redirects no longer work until it comes back?

Eventually the free site will be abandoned/canceled/deleted, so redirects die with it...right?

(this is probably a very stupid question, but hey, maybe some kind of magic in the tubes happens?!)
 
S

splitpea

macrumors 65816
Oct 21, 2009
1,134
396
Among the starlings
Sdashiki said:
So, my new question concerns when I do move and have redirects from the old free site...and the old free site goes down (again, why im moving to paid) will redirects no longer work until it comes back?

Eventually the free site will be abandoned/canceled/deleted, so redirects die with it...right?
Click to expand...

Yes and yes. That's why you prompt people to update their bookmarks and links, and why you put in the 301 redirects so search engines will know that the site has officially moved.
 
7031

7031

macrumors 6502
Apr 6, 2007
479
0
England
splitpea said:
Yes and yes. That's why you prompt people to update their bookmarks and links, and why you put in the 301 redirects so search engines will know that the site has officially moved.
Click to expand...

And what if the hosting is cancelled on free account before search engines et cetera have updated their links? From what I've heard, 6 months is a safe amount of time. Anyone able to comment on this?
 
S

splitpea

macrumors 65816
Oct 21, 2009
1,134
396
Among the starlings
7031 said:
And what if the hosting is cancelled on free account before search engines et cetera have updated their links? From what I've heard, 6 months is a safe amount of time. Anyone able to comment on this?
Click to expand...

6 months is plenty. If anything, Google's only gotten faster at that than they used to be. I think you may also be able to use Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo's webmaster tools, etc, and XML sitemaps to give the search engines info about your site.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom