Member Avatar for hudson

Hello,

Some time ago I bought space at Homestead to build a business website, and located my business domain name there. I've ended up creating my business elsewhere on the Web. I've established a redirect link from an empty index page at Homestead to my new website. I have nothing else at Homestead.

I asked Homestead if I needed to add some text description to their site so that the search engines would have something to display, you know, a blurb. Homestead replied that it didn't know how different search engines treated a redirect.

Does anyone know the answer to this question? Will a redirect link cause trouble and confusion in listing my domain name with different types of search engines (spiders and human) and web directories? I'm trying to save time by using the redirect instead of transfering the domain name to my business site (two weeks for a simple tranfer) added on to the additional weeks it will take the search engines to pick me up.

Will I end up costing myself time and frustration by listing my domain name as a redirect? My actual URL is a Cafepress.com extention. There are thousands of Cafepress businesses.

Thanks.

  • 5 Contributors
  • 8 Replies
  • 314 Views
  • 4 Weeks Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by oohdale

Dani AI

Generated

— short answer: redirects are not inherently "bad for business," but the type and implementation matter a lot. A proper server-side permanent redirect is the cleanest way to tell search engines and visitors that the site moved. Client-side tricks (frames/masked forwarding, meta-refresh or JavaScript) frequently cause indexing oddities and poor search listings.

was right to separate server- vs client-side; was right to prefer a permanent redirect; and /’s examples show why masking/frames often produces confusing results. Practical next steps:

  • Ask Homestead exactly what kind of redirect they offer. If they can issue an HTTP 301 (Moved Permanently), use it.
  • If you control the web server, this is a typical Apache option you can use (replace example domain): 
# .htaccess — 301 permanent redirect entire domain
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://your-new-site.example/$1 [R=301,L]

# or the simpler directive
Redirect 301 / http://your-new-site.example/
  • Test the redirect from the command line: 
curl -I http://olddomain.example
# expect a "HTTP/1.1 301" and a Location: header

If Homestead cannot provide 301s, either move the domain to a registrar/host that can, or use your hosted platform's domain-mapping (if available) so the store runs on the custom domain (this avoids redirects). If neither is possible, put a small, real HTML "We moved" page (no frames, clear link, useful text) rather than masked forwarding — at least humans and some bots will see the destination and context.

Finally, once the redirect or mapping is in place, update directory listings and register both old and new domains in webmaster tools (submit a sitemap, use Google's Change of Address if available), and monitor traffic and crawl reports. Expect indexing changes to take days to a few weeks.

Recommended Answers

All 8 Replies

Member Avatar for Dani

Is it a server-side redirect (i.e. Apache redirection or a PHP redirection) or a client-side redirect such as JavaScript or a meta refresh tag?

Member Avatar for Arizona Web

It is not good for search engines. A 301 redirect is the lesser of all evils, but you can't do that on homestead. You are best off putting a page up that informs the users you moved and has a link to your new site.

Member Avatar for hudson

Is it a server-side redirect (i.e. Apache redirection or a PHP redirection) or a client-side redirect such as JavaScript or a meta refresh tag?

It's a code on an otherwise blank index page at Homestead that links directly to the Cafepress site. At this time, the only search engine I've tried that has this link is Google. On cable it goes real quick, you don't even see any reroute text.

Member Avatar for hudson

It is not good for search engines. A 301 redirect is the lesser of all evils, but you can't do that on homestead. You are best off putting a page up that informs the users you moved and has a link to your new site.

Thanks for your post. Would I be better off simply transfering the domain name to Cafepress and taking care of the Homestead domain name later?

Member Avatar for Arizona Web

Thanks for your post. Would I be better off simply transfering the domain name to Cafepress and taking care of the Homestead domain name later?

You would certainly be best getting the domian pointed to where it is hosted.

Member Avatar for oohdale

I recommend going to www.godaddy.com and open a account then transfer it there, and use their domain name "masking" Keywords and Title and description areas in the forwarding area, like I do some of mine. You will never regret going to godaddy.com I can say with confidence. Why? I have over 300 names there. Now some forums are really sticklers on giving examples so I will be real careful here, but email me or PM me and we can start a dialog. I can definitely save you a lot of headaches and possible future problems. I have made a ton of errors is why I know. I had to scroll up to see where I was. They won't care because I have Daniweb.com banners all over my pages. I was at another place the other night and I had not been there in a long while and as soon as I posted I got Flamed bad. Why? I was tired and it was late, some forums don't like BOLD letters all the time and they let me know about it. Plus I replied to a thread in a wrong way. Wrong answer I guess. Oh well, win some and lose some. Example: Masked one = unmasked one: The REAL url? So it all depends on what you are trying to accomplish. I am their affiliate and one way the customer can not go anywhere else but, go on to their shopping cart. I hope this helps some. Try that one too. btw: I had three mis-spelled words. iespell in my browser did the job.

Member Avatar for DaveSW

The point is with your sturgis buckles site that when google visits your homepage they get:

<html>
<head>
<title>Sturgis Rally Buckles</title>
<META name="description" content="22 Years of Commemorative Sturgis Rally Buckles">
<META name="keywords" content="22 Years of Commemorative Sturgis Rally Buckles,Commemorative,T-Shirts, Shirts, Harley-Davidson Shirts, VIDEOS,GIFTS,2004,2003,1982,1984,Special Prices,">
</head>
<frameset rows="100%,*" border="0">
<frame src="" frameborder="0">
<frame frameborder="0" noresize>
</frameset>
</html>

Which results in the following display in google:
http://www.google.com/search?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sturgisbuckles.com%2F&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

And if we search for the two words of your domain seperately you're at the bottom of page 3:
http://www.google.com/search?q=sturgis+buckles&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=20&sa=N

If the domain was directly attached to the domain rather than using a frames redirect it would give google more content to index on the primary and presumably most important page of your site. Therefore I'd agree with Arizona Web.

That's my 2p of opinion.

Member Avatar for oohdale

BUT, I saw three of my pages there not just 1. and the one too. What you don't understand yet is that is a one way in and 2 ways out of that redirect so I get my 20% commision on all sales as an affiliate. Savvy? I have about 10 others going there too. and to just list a few.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.