Moving a website

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So I've learnt it may be possible to move my forum from its current place on Proboards, which is a free host that forbids anyone making money off their board, to Simple Machines forum software, on any host I choose. I've begun to research this whole thing.

One major concern of mine if I go through with this move is that Google would see it as a new site and penalise its standing. It currently ranks top for several of my main keywords, and I don't want to risk this loss. I would be buying a domain for it as close to the present one as possible--basically, the same thing without the ".proboards" in it, and changing all my current backlinks that I'm in control of to the new site and if I can, doing a redirect on the original site. Would Google see that as trying to fake them out? I don't want to risk losing my google spot on BOTH forums. We get like 90% of our traffic and new members from Google. So losing our place would pretty much mean losing the site. XD
#search engine optimization #moving #website
  • You have to make the change any way you look at it. What is the use in having the site that is ranking for these keywords if you can't monetize your traffic? I would follow the exact plan that you have laid out and try my best to retain any incoming traffic and links that I currently have. Besides, if your board is tightly focused on a certain niche then you probably wont lose any existing members, which will be very good once you start monetizing your site. This should buy you some time in terms of ranking again should any of your rankings drop.

    This is exactly why I never host ANY of my sites for free...
  • It was originally a small game site that wasn't intended to become the behemoth that it has grown into. It was an unexpected runaway success {some say after I took it over, lol}. It was a labour of love, but I hate "real jobs" and can't find one these days anyway. So I began to look for ways to have this site pay its way and maybe then some.

    I'm trying to find a way to possibly preserve this google spot. If I invest all this time and money into the site's new location only to have it drop off the map it'll be a lot of lost cash AND lost community that I value very much. It's ranking high up there in spite of being Proboards, but it's over 5 years old.

    Looking now into getting a domain name for it and establishing it under that domain, then doing the switch.
  • First of all congrats on the success of your site. Like Embions stated above this is exactly why I own my own reseller account so I have the decision making authority over my sites and not a free host.

    Is it at all possible to 301 redirect the current proboards site to the new domain once the site has been moved? If so this will aid in retaining most if not all of your current standings in Google. You just have to make sure the 301 redirect is done properly to direct any direct links to their new location on the new domain.

    Best of luck on your migration to a new domain.
  • I have dealt with this kind of problem with my client. To make your website the same way as old site You have to maintain all the URL, Meta and description of the site. It's quite complex though.
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    Moving a website

    So I've learnt it may be possible to move my forum from its current place on Proboards, which is a free host that forbids anyone making money off their board, to Simple Machines forum software, on any host I choose. I've begun to research this whole thing. One major concern of mine if I go through with this move is that Google would see it as a new site and penalise its standing. It currently ranks top for several of my main keywords, and I don't want to risk this loss. I would be buying a domain for it as close to the present one as possible--basically, the same thing without the ".proboards" in it, and changing all my current backlinks that I'm in control of to the new site and if I can, doing a redirect on the original site. Would Google see that as trying to fake them out? I don't want to risk losing my google spot on BOTH forums. We get like 90% of our traffic and new members from Google. So losing our place would pretty much mean losing the site. XD