Moved the forum to another domain: URL rewrite disappeared!

treatmekindly · Joined: 14 Jul 2007 Posts: 15

Hi,

I installed the mixed mod rewrite and the Google Yahoo MSN Sitemaps and RSS v1.2.0RC4 on the forums at this Old URL http://www.treatwidevision.us/forums , but I recently moved the forum to another web host and the web host restored the forum on a new domain tvseriesmusic.com . So now the forum is at this new URL http://www.tvseriesmusic.com/forum . I checked to see if the friendly URLs and the mx Google sitemaps work, but none of them worked! I then uploaded the .htaccess file that I backed up from the old host's Control Panel. My question is
Do I need to fix the word "forums" and the domain treatwidevision.us in the .htaccess file or just leave them the way they were then use a different robots.txt and Zero Duplicate mod?

I could not find the robots.txt file in treatwidevision.us as mentioned in this thread in the old domain treatwidevision.us. I don't remember if I had a robots.txt before I submitted the forum for Google to index my forum pages, but I believed I did have the robots.txt file in the root folder in the old web host.

I saw the instruction:
"Migrating:

If you are migration, eg if your forum is already indexed using different URLs, you'll have to use another robots.txt and install the zero duplicate.
The migrating procedure will allow you to migrate and keep your previously indexed pages. Older links will be HTTP 301 redirected to the new ones. It is rather simple, but the solution depends on cases.
Let's meet in the Mixed mod Rewrite forum."

The instruction above says, then "you'll have to use another robots.txt," but how is it different? How will my robots.txt file look exactly? Please show me the whole thing in robots.txt for my forum (the one at the new domain tvseriesmusic.com, not the old domain treatwidevision.us) in your reply.

I already submitted my forum sitemap to Google search engine a while back. I wondered if Google indexed my forum pages, but it looks like they have not indexed my forum pages.

I also checked the Mixed mod Rewrite forum but could not find the answer to my question. It says above, "the solution depends on cases" so which case is my situation? Could you please help me as soon as possible? What are ALL of the steps that I need to do now after moving the forums to another web host and restoring the forum at another domain?

Thank you in advance. I am looking forward to your reply. Please reply soon!

For your reference:
I posted under the username "achievehigh.org" about what I installed before on pages 21 and 22 of this thread. I said this in case you needed to understand my forum situation more in helping me with my questions below.

treatmekindly · Joined: 14 Jul 2007 Posts: 15

Update on the post above:

I want to add this information to my message above.

I just added the robots.txt. I put the content in the robots.txt following the instructions on this page. Like I presented above, I couldn't find the robots.txt in my old web host before so I created a robots.txt and uploaded it into treatwidevision.us (the old URL of my forum) after I already moved the forum to another domain tvseriesmusic.com. Does it work like that?

You can see my robots. txt file at treatwidevision.us/robots.txt.

treatmekindly · Joined: 14 Jul 2007 Posts: 15

Google found an internal "SERVER" error. Please review the error because it's related to the server.

I moved the .htaccess file from the old web host to the new web host and changed from treatwidevision.us to tvseriesmusic.com at the top of the .htaccess file. I also changed from "forums" to "forum" right after this symbol ^ and toward the end right before the slash / of each RewriteRule line.

I also transferred the robots.txt file from treatwidevision.us to the new domain tvseriesmusic.com. You can check my .htaccess and robots.txt both inside the new domain tvseriesmusic.com to see if it's correct or not.

I reviewed the instructions in gym_sitemapsV1-2-0RC4.txt for [RC4] GYM Sitemaps & RSS (aka mx Google Sitemaps) here and saw there was a step (step 4) that involved MySQL database. I did what I said above to the .htaccess and robots.txt files but I did not update the MySQL database. I don't know what I need to do with the MySQL part. I usually don't want to deal with MySQL database for fear of errors.

After doing the .htaccess and robots.txt steps above, the friendly forum URLs work. However, when I submitted the sitemap to Google to review and index after logging in www.google.com/webmasters , Google told me after one or two days of sitemap submission that they found one error.

Sitemap errors and warnings
Line Status Details
- Network unreachable: Network unreachable
We encountered an error while trying to access your Sitemap. Please ensure your Sitemap follow the guidelines and can be accessed at the location you provided and then resubmit.

HTTP Error: 500 (Internal server error)
Found: May 23, 2008

I submitted this forum sitemap http://www.tvseriesmusic.com/forum/sitemaps.xml to Google and Google found that error. You can see here that this SAME sitemap http://www.treatwidevision.us/forums/sitemaps.xml (carries the URL treatwidevision.us and hosted by another web host) that I also submitted to Google before, but Google didn't find any error in that same sitemap, but the site map http://www.tvseriesmusic.com/forum/sitemaps.xml that carries the new URL hosted by another web host has error.

Why did I see this forum URL http://www.tvseriesmusic.com/forum/sitemap.php?forum=57 under the sitemap details in my Google's account when that URL is not on my site map at http://www.tvseriesmusic.com/forum/sitemaps.xml? In the "sitemap summary" in my Google account, I saw only up to this URL http://treatwidevision.us/forums/sitemap.php?forum=56 for the same sitemap that was in its old URL. How do I fix the error for my sitemap at its new URL http://www.tvseriesmusic.com/forum/sitemaps.xml?

Can you please help me? How come no one knows the answers to my questions at php-seo forum? How can I get technical support at this forum?

SeO

sorry for delay.

So, from your first post, the only issue seems to have been the change in the folder name where phpBB is installed, from forums/ to forum/, this means that, since you changed the domain name as well, you need to update phpBB config for the domain name, the cookie domain and the script path.*

The rewriterules do not match either anymore since they mention the old install path.
With the zero duplicate up and running, you'd only need to replace all occurrences of :

treatmekindly · Joined: 14 Jul 2007 Posts: 15

Thank you. I have some questions for clarification.

For reference:
Old forum URL: www.treatwidevision.us/forums hosted by old web host
New forum URL: www.tvseriesmusic.com/forum hosted by new web host

Question about Redirect:
Do I need to redirect the forum from the old domain treatwidevision.us to the new domain tvseriesmusic.com? Google says that they have not indexed my forum at the old URL www.treatwidevision.us/forums . Can I just make the sitemap anew meaning just change the .htaccess file in the new domain as if the old forum never existed and as if it's the first time I do the URL rewrite, install the GYM sitemap, and lock the www in URLs for the forum? Can I not do the redirect from treatwidevision.us/forums to tvseriesmusic.com/forum because Google has not indexed my forum at the old URL yet? In addition, there are many sites and files that carry the old URL and I want them to carry that old URL treatwidevision.us/filename.htm or treatwidevision.us/foldername or subdomain/treatwidevision.us/foldername/filename. I don't wish to have my things in the old domain to get wiped out when redirecting though. I also have to delete the old forum at its old URL treatwidevision.us/forums because my hosting package will no longer have php and database. Is there another way to do it without redirecting the forum at its old URL to its new URL? What to do in this situation? Can I just leave the content in the .htaccess and robots.txt the same as the ones I pasted below?

RewriteRule in .htaccess:
I thought I had to change from "forums" to "forum" right after the symbol ^ in the RewriteRule but you mentioned right after this symbol ^ in RewriteRule change it from "forums" to "forums?" and that's the only change I need to do per RewriteRule line. I am confused why it's like that. I wonder if I am reading your message the way you intend it to be.
Here is what I did to my .htaccess file in the new domain tvseriesmusic.com. Please see it below:

SeO

So, it's easier than you think, but many things are involved here.

Right now, both urls goes to the same place without redirecting, as you can see, the old domain has PageRank (3) and it in deed was indexed by Google : 1570 pages in cache.

So you really want to properly redirect the old domain to the new one to keep all this.

This mean you need to keep the old domain as long as possible (better if always), as said, you can either keep it with a web-space and perform the redirecting from there or set the old domain dns so that it will indeed lead to the same place as the new one (both domains installed on the same web space). I'm not sure in your case, but it looks like the two domains are fully separated for now, two dbs and two web-spaces.

The cheaper is of course to set the dns to match the new domain web-space, since you would not need to pay for two web-spaces.

To do the redirecting with both domain set on the same host, you just need to implement the www redirection (method n°2) in your .htaccess for the new domain (the only one to in the end use), all the old links known by bots or posted on other site will continue to work, they will be redirected to the new location and will make sure everybody understand the update. It's really important SEO wise.

About the phpBB config, when you change domain and / or install path (both in your case), you need to update the domain and script path set in the phpbb_config table (general settings in acp).

They are used by the script in various tasks and must match the actual settings to work properly.
The cookie domains should always be the domain name prefixed with a dot : .example.com in case -www.example.com (or example.com) is the domain used on the forum.

About the rewriterule, adding the "s?" in the path allows the use of both forum/ and forums/ in the urls. You need to let them both working at first to allow redireting (byt the zero dupe), since the old url will include the s and the new one won't.

For example :

treatmekindly · Joined: 14 Jul 2007 Posts: 15

Thank you for your reply. To thank you, I clicked on Google ads on your forum. I've also read everything in your second reply right above and also checked the URL you pasted.

I need to ask some old questions again because I believed you missed them and will also ask new but related questions to help me understand what you've written and to help me know what to do considering my small budget.

Question 1:
I did what you advised the first time you replied on May 24. I redirected from http://www.treatwidevision.us/forums to http://tvseriesmusic.com/forum exactly like this using "Redirect URL" in my old web host. Please take a look at this screen capture to see if I redirect the forum at its old URL to its new URL correctly. The reason the second URL doesn't have "www" is because the "Redirect URL" gave me a box to paste in my new forum URL so I pasted in tvseriesmusic.com and the box before it only has http://. I also changed ^forums/ to ^forums?/ in the first part of each RewriteRule line. I left "/forums" with "s" for the middle part of each RewriteRule line in the .htaccess located at the root of the old domain hosted by the old web host and put /forum in the .htaccess located at the root of the new domain hosted by the new web host.
Please see what I did to the .htaccess and robots.txt files in both the old and new domains in my next message below this one. Did I do everything in the .htaccess and robots.txt files in both the old and new domains correctly for the forum?

Question 2:
I haven't installed the Zero Duplicate here yet. I believed you forgot to let me know if I need to install the Zero Duplicate and where to install it. Do I install this Zero Duplicate, the file and instructions here? Do I install that Zero Duplicate into the forum at its new URL tvseriesmusic.com/forum or both the old treatwidevision.us/forums and new URL?

Question 3: The sitemaps.xml at the old forum URL
Google said in the webmaster part of my Google account that No URLs of my forum at treatwidevision.us/forums were indexed. Please see this screen capture.

"It says, Indexed URLs: 0."

For this same sitemap for the forum at its old domain, Google says there are no errors in it. Please also see the screen capture.
Google says no error in sitemap for forum at old URL

However, Google says these pages of the forum at its old URLs violate the guidelines.
Sample URLs that violate the guidelines:
http://www.treatwidevision.us/forums/
http://www.treatwidevision.us/forums/topic469.html
http://www.treatwidevision.us/forums/member918.html
http://www.treatwidevision.us/forums/post13579.html
http://www.treatwidevision.us/forums/post15094.html
http://www.treatwidevision.us/forums/post9151.html?highlight=
Please see the screen capture of the URLs that Google says violate their guidelines here. I checked those forum pages but they looked fine. They looked like the other pages that didn't violate the guidelines. Could you please let me know what go wrong with the above pages and how to fix them so that they do not look like they contain or link to badwares? Did someone hack into my forum and made changes to the code or something?
As I remembered, shortly after I submitted the sitemaps.xml for the forum at its old domain, Google said no error in the sitemap. However, xat.com did something to their flash chat box that I put on my forum, making the Internet Explorer unable to load the page like before because it was missing some plugins. Then it seemed that Google couldn't read some of my forum pages and suddenly showed in the "Sitemap details" of my Google account what you saw in the third screen capture relating the sitemaps.xml (with the file name "Google_says_these_pages_of_treatwidevision.us_forums_violate_the_guidelines.jpg") and also put in the search engine for www.treatwidevision.us/forums this wrong label, "this site May harm the computer." I already sent Google a message asking them to review my forum again and told them that it was the chat box that I got from www.xat.com and used it at the top of the forum that caused Google to incorrectly labeled my forum. I told Google that my forum didn't have badwares and I also moved the forum to the new domain tvseriesmusic.com. Though I've submitted the request for reevaluation of my forum, I haven't heard from Google yet because they say it takes a while for them to review. Now I've deleted the sitemap for the forum at the old domain from my Google account, I don't know what is going to happen.

When you visit my forum at both the old and new URLs, you no longer see that flash chat box I got from xat.com. That chat box caused a problem presented above thus, I took it off the forum at the old and new URLs. I presented the situation so that you would know what has happened in order to help me.

Yesterday, I deleted the sitemaps.xml from Google submission for my forum at the old URL because Google wrongly labeled my forum like that and also because Google said they did not index my forum pages and the only page Google indexed was the main index http://www.treatwidevision.us/forums . Please look at this screen capture which doesn't show this forum URL www.treatwidevision.us/forums and its sitemap under "Dashboard." My question is do I need to resubmit the sitemaps.xml for the forum hosted inside the old domain?

Please note that I already resubmitted the sitemaps.xml for the forum at the new domain to ask Google to index my forum pages and it said no errors. Please see this screen capture in which I combined all of the details that Google gave me in my Google account regarding my sitemaps.xml for the forum at the new domain. Although Google says in my account that no data is available for "Indexed URLs in Sitemap," it appears that Google has indexed less than 30 of my forum pages. Please see them here . I don't understand why Google indexed the member pages as well when my robots.txt file in the new domain says disallow them. Furthermore, the descriptions for the links that have the word "post#" in Google don't look much like the content of the forum pages (strange descriptions). Because I resubmitted the sitemaps.xml for the forum at the new URL some days ago, the .htaccess file had the exact content that I pasted in my post right above, dated Sat May 24. However, I don't know if Google will say there are errors later on like how they did a few days after the first time I submitted the same sitemaps.xml for my forum at the new URL.

Question 4a:

treatmekindly · Joined: 14 Jul 2007 Posts: 15

This message supplements the above message. So please read the above message first because that is the order of my messages and the message above is the one that contains my important questions.

This was what I did to the .htaccess file in my old domain treatwidevision.us hosted by the old web host. Please notice the first part and the middle part of each RewriteRule. The first part of each RewriteRule has ^forums?. The middle part of each RewriteRule has "/forums" with letter "s."

dcz

You're making this too complicated.

All these issues goes down to :
1) you are changing domain name
2) you are as well changing the phpBB directory (from forums to forum)
3) You want to redirect everything properly.

To do so, you thus need to redirect the old domain to the new one and the old phpBB dir to the new one.

Adding a question mark in the reg ex as SEO told you will allow both the old and the new path to match the proper script, letting the zero duplicate doing it's job.

But you could imagine to keep forums/ as the phpBB dir in the new domain to make things a little easier.

About phpBB itself, the only install that matters is the one on the new domain, the real one. The other domain does only need to be redirected, not to actually host a forum.

++

treatmekindly · Joined: 14 Jul 2007 Posts: 15

Thank you for your reply.

Are my .htaccess and robots.txt files correct? I pasted them above and I am still waiting for your answer about that.

My robots.txt file in the new domain prevented Google from browsing so many forum pages that they should browse. That is why I really want to know if my files, both the .htaccess and the robots.txt look correct to you. Please let me know.

dcz

So it looks like you're really close to success here : http://www.treatwidevision.us/forums/topic2639.html

treatmekindly · Joined: 14 Jul 2007 Posts: 15

Thanks for your reply. I need your help in this pm.

dcz

treatmekindly · Joined: 14 Jul 2007 Posts: 15

Thanks for your reply above. Please read this particular message closely. I repeated things, but my questions were not addressed fully. Something was still missing.

As I explained on May 26, I host many files at treatwidevision.us at the old web host so I can't set the DNS as the new host otherwise, I will lose all files and statistics of all sites still hosted by the old domain at the old web host. I already asked the old web host about that. I must put treatwidevision.us at the old web host in order to keep all of those files and statistics. I use the new host to host the forum because of its fast server speed and the old host for space and bandwidth for the files and sites at the old domain treatwidevision.us. The new web host doesn't have enough space or bandwidth for me to host everything. If I moved the old domain treatwidevision.us to the new web host by changing the DNS to match the new web host and using the "domain add on" function inside the control panel of the new web host, I will also have to buy a third domain, connect it to the old web host, and then transfer all files that are currently at the old domain treatwidevision.us to the third domain. I really don't want to do this at all because not only it's very time consuming, it costs me more money. Thus, I decided to leave treatwidevision.us the way it is at the old web host to keep all of my files and site statistics at the old web host intact while I can't backup anything right now. I don't just have a forum to take care of at the new domain tvseriesmusic.com, I have many other sites and files inside treatwidevision.us to take care of as well.