How to Switch your Old Website to a New Website Platform

4 Ways to Switch and/or Migrate your Old Website to a New Website Platform 


1. Delete an Old Website and Replace it with a New Website:

• PROS:  Switch and your done
• CONS:  You can lose some old traffic
• CONS:  Even if you don't lose old traffic, you would not gain new traffic (explain later)

2. Switch by using 301 Redirects

301 redirect is the most efficient and Search Engine Friendly method for webpage redirection. It should preserve your search engine rankings for that particular page. If you have to change file names or move pages around, it's the safest option. The code "301" is interpreted as "moved permanently".

You can Test your redirection with Search Engine Friendly Redirect Checker

Here are some Examples and Directions:

http://www.dailyblogtips.com/how-to-setup-a-301-redirect/

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93633
http://www.singlegrain.com/blog/how-to-move-domains-without-losing-seo-value/

• PROS:  Having one New Website
• PROS:  Save your Old Traffic as long as every single URL is mapped
• CONS:  Takes forever to map the URLs properly
• CONS:  You may lose traffic if you don't map all the URLs to new URLs
• CONS:  If you have an old website, you lose years of work which otherwise could have been saved if you had kept both websites

3. Leave the Old Website & Start A New Website on a Brand New Domain

Use if you want ZERO RISK when it comes to losing old traffic and current search engine ranking. Even though 301 Redirect is safe, there is still risk involved if you don't map all the old URLs to the new ones or the old web pages may have slightly more unique content than the new one and the rank drops.

In addition some clients may love your old website and don't want to switch.

Start the new website and funnel the old website traffic to the new website.
example: SEO.com = old site
example: theSEO.com = new site

• PROS: NO Risk that your Old Website will lose anything
• CONS: The new website has no ranking and you don't benefit from your SEO on the old domain

4. Leave the Old Website and Start a New Website on a Subdomain *Recommended*

Start a sub domain on your existing High Traffic, Old Domain Name that has Google Authority and benefit from years of work plus the new content from the new website.

If you want to an 'Add to Cart' on your old domain, you would simply create links from the product pages to my new website and strictly use the old website as a content library to funnel visitors to your new website. The best part is you can add anew store on a sub domain instantly and slowly work on funneling the traffic from your old website without affecting your daily operations.

The main benefit you get from all of this is ALL the SEO work you've done on your old website, is now transferred to the new sub domain because you are still using the same domain name.

example: SEO.com = old site

example: store.SEO.com = new site

example: product1.SEO.com

example: product2.SEO.com

example: product3.SEO.com

• PROS: Keep your old traffic, and your old sales
• PROS: Super easy, no hassle, no headache swith
• PROS: Gain new sales and new visitors
• CONS: Have two Websites
• CONS: Create banner advertisements or links to funnel traffic to your new domain

KEEP IN MIND: If the website makes money or has high traffic just leave it alone and make a new website on a new domain or a subdomain. You can also decide if you want to turn off a shopping cart on the old website and start funneling the traffic to the new website if their are no to little sales on the old one.