by LMFAO
3 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
  • |
Dear Warriors,

Below is an outline of the issues my friend is facing, he has asked me to step in and help him find a solution. I am open to any recommendations you might have.

Thank you in advance!

Issue: An e-commerce website is switching platforms to eliminate countless restrictions. In addition to the main website there are forums, magazine page and a blog site – all on different domains. To make things more interesting most of the domains have not had URL canonicalization implemented so the backlinks and indexed pages are split between all possible URL variations.

Objective:
Import the optimized product data into the new platform, merge magazine, forum and blog with platform’s CRM. Now for the fun part, salvage as many backlinks as possible with smart redirects for indexed pages, or something with a similar effect.

The Details (Long Version): My friend has been running a e-commerce store for 7 years on a proprietary platform which limits him in every possible way preventing him from bettering the shopping experience and any major site modifications. The current platform has served him well and as of a couple months ago he decided that it is finally time to bite the bullet and switch platforms. The current site does not allow any additional scripts, enhanced CMS functions, super-limited back-end access, and no FTP (single upload only). Over the time he has hired multiple developers who chose to develop different sections of the website on other domains for various reasons including the platform limitations. The new platform is going to be Magento, the current forums are VBulliten, the blog is WordPress and the magazine site is Joomla.

What a nice stew of platforms right? Fortunately, there are plenty of scripts which allow implementation of the content into Magento and while this concerns me the link and page issue is far more important.

Domain Data:

Screenshot
[Report Generated in MS]

What can I do to preserve as many backlinks as possible and helping users who bookmarked pages reach the proper destination? Any specific direction or process to follow that might be favorable by the big G?:confused:

Thank you again,
DP
#backlink merge #dilemma #domain merge #pr merge #site merge #webmaster
  • Profile picture of the author LMFAO
    Thank you for that comment Jack, I changed it to a link instead of using the image tags. Have you any input on the issue?

    Also, I am familiar with 301 redirect if anyone is thinking the obvious, I am looking for something outside the outer box. A list of old pages referenced to the new ones seemes like another great solution but there are 1.2 million products, of which only a handful have been indexed.

    Thank you again,
    D.P.
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  • Profile picture of the author LMFAO
    Anyone have any ideas? With 70 views and no responses, someone must have some advice...
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  • Profile picture of the author phpbbxpert
    It's a difficult and simple issue at the same time.
    Difficult because of the amount of data/links to deal with makes it a bit tough to come up with a feasible solution that is outside the box.

    Simple because I think the best solution will end up being typical 301 redirects with a touch of mod-rewrite for the dynamic urls.

    Keep in mind you will want to make a script / or run queries on the databases after the move to clean any URLs in the databases.

    You don't want some one to click on an old link in the data that goes to the old site just to redirect back.
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