Moving a Blog
by David Peralty on October 3rd, 2006 
7 Comments
Okay BloggingPro readers, I need a hand. I am looking at moving myself from my long time blog to another blog that I am working on, but I don’t want to lose some of what I have built up.
I am looking at switching domains, designs, and focus for the new blog, so being able to export posts from a few categories on my current blog, and have such posts either deleted on the original blog, or have people forwarded over to the new blog when looking for posts under those categories. I would also like to find a way to transfer my Google Page rank to the new site, as my current site has just finally hit a PR6, and it will definitely not be worth that once I change it from an everything blog that it is now, to more of just a family update site.
My new blog is where I will be focusing most of my time and effort, and so I wanted to get it started on the right foot. So if you have tips on moving parts of a blog from one domain to another, I would love to hear them.
The best way of doing so is having your old website return a redirect. In this case we would be talking about a 301 (permanent redirect).
Some data can be found here: http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/reback
If I remember correctly, Google spiders are intelligent enough to understand these and, thus, move the PR to the new website. All the same I’d suggest you checking that information or how to achieve it the best possible.
A lot will depend on the level of control you have over your apache config… I’ve moved sites from one domain to another quite seamlessly using mod_rewrite rules in the past, but I usually have root access to everything :)
I just completed such a move more or less successfully. I wrote a plugin to help. The details are at http://rmarsh.com/2006/09/23/moving-your-blog/. I came across a snag or two though (http://rmarsh.com/2006/09/27/a-word-of-caution-when-changing-domains/) which could have been easily dodged if I’d stuck to the database backup recipe at http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/move2/.
Good luck!
Can I have this blog when you are done moving stuff? :)
Yes indeed, use the 301 redirect to tranfer all traffic and PR to the new blog, I would just leave this one as it is for awhile and start fresh on the new site.
You do this in a file called .htaccess by simply adding this line:
redirect 301 / http://www.newsite.com
(where “/” means redirect all)
You do not want to do it any differently and risk being seen as a spammer.
Preved! Nice resourse! Kagdila? I’m medved
A lot will depend on the level of control you have over your apache config
I am currently being blackmailed by Steven’s Van Lines out of Saginaw, MI on a move from Michigan to Florida. We found out my Mother has cancer and needed to move her quickly to Florida for treatment. She is on a limited budget so I was trying to help her and had Steven’s came to the house and gave me a “garrenteed, not to exceed quote” Now they have everything our family owns on a truck in Northern Michigan and they are blackmailing me for more money! I am so disgusted!!!! This is so unethical!