Effective Moving Content to a New Domain Tutorials

A buddy of mine asked what else he should you look after when moving content to a new domain or blog beyond using an indispensable 301 redirect.

As long as you use a 301 you are already pretty safe when it comes to SEO fundamentals.

Yet there are some other things you can do to ensure compliance with Google. I won’t repeat them here. I’ll link to those who do.


Why Use a Redirect?

For those who are new to SEO: when you don’t use a so called 301 permanent redirect to tell Google you moved you hurt your site’s traffic significantly.

It’s like changing your real life address and telling nobody where you’re at from now on.

Nobody will find you. It’s a bit technical as you have to add code to your so called .htaccess file. Server side programming languages like PHP also allow you to redirect.

Yet for most of use nowadays a WordPress plugin can help you add a 301 redirect. When you don’t use WordPress ask an SEO to do it for you.


Google-friendly Moving

There are several excellent effective how to’s, tutorials or manuals out there to tell Google and users your whereabouts.

They all differ a little so I decided to compile a list of 7 effective “moving content to a new domain” Manuals.

Most of them are from highly trustworthy SEO professionals, one is from Google itself:

  1. Expectations and Best Practices for Moving to or Launching a New Domain
  2. Website migration guide: building an SEO checklist for moving your site
  3. How to Move a Domain without Losing Its SEO Value
  4. How to Move Your Web Site without Chaos
  5. Best practices when moving your site
  6. How to: Move a Website… Should You Fear 301 Redirects Hurting Your Rankings?


Don’t Move for No Reason

On a side note: There is an old saying for programmers: never touch a running system. This means:

When it works don’t change it. Likewise: When you rank high in Google, don’t move. New domains are bad for SEO.

Only move your website or content if you have no other option.

Also don’t mix moving your content to a new domain up with changing hosting. Changing your server has been explained by Matt Cutts of Google himself.