When launching my new site that’s replacing the old, should I delete old one first or launch the new o ne and then delete my old site?
[B]My current web site[/B] that’s lost almost every bit of traffic was built over 10 years ago. Over those 10 years, it began fizzling based on the HTML5 hierarchy and all the Panda and other updates. It was built using Frontpage2002 which is no longer supported by Microsoft.
[B]My new web site[/B] that’s going to take it’s place which is currently on a temp server will replace the old site, but of course have the same domain name and exact URL It will have over 9,000 different pages and have no inside “reciprocal links” page. It was built using Wordpress.
Question. When I launch new site, should I first delete old site and then launch the new? Or, Launch the new and go in and delete old site? Or does it really matter in the grand scheme of webbery?
The approach to replacing a site that I like is to have both versions available on the same server and not delete the old version.
Using a Php Framework makes this an easy task but I think it could be achieved using a htaccess file to route all requests to either new or old version.
It kind of depends. If they are going to be on different servers, then you’d have to point the domain to the new location. Then nothing needs to be deleted.
If they are to be in the same hosting space, then I’d probably delete the old one and then upload the new one. You don’t want old pages conflicting with new ones.
But it’s a good idea to not the old page URLs and redirect them to the new one via your htaccess file, though. You don’t want to get a lot of Google 404s, and you don’t want to lose the search engine value of the old pages. And of course, as much as possible you want people clicking links to your site to find a real page rather than a 404 message.
Thanks for your input. My current site was built using Frontpage2002 so is on a Windows based server. My new site was built using WordPress so will be on a Linux server. I did install a “redirect” plugin on new WP site, and listed all of the current URL’s to new URL’s and will of course keep a copy of my old site on my hard drive. One thing I did learn then, is I will have to point the domain to the new Linux server when I launch, but I note your one statement “Then nothing needs to be deleted”…you mean my old host will have to archive the site on their server somehow.
Thanks, just wanted to clarify the part of it and then for the sake of “archiving”, the copy I have on my hard drive (the old Frontpage2002 version) is acceptable then?
‘Acceptable’ isn’t really an official term. Whatever you are happy with is acceptable. Archiving of digital material is a big issue that is going to bite us all—hard—in times to come. It’s quite possible that less will be retained from this current age than from past, paper and papyrus-based ages.
Good points…II’ll just keep my current Frontpage built site stored safely on my hard drive as is, then. And I wonder what the internet will be looking like in a quarter of a century…what new concepts will have come along. There’s been alot of talk about an “erasable” internet lately but see that as only one small aspect of an overall picture.
Whatever you are happy with is acceptable. Archiving of digital material is a big issue that is going to bite us all—hard—in times to come. It’s quite possible that less will be retained from this current age than from past, paper and papyrus-based ages.