Advice for moving content that has good Google ranking

[HeavyLifting]

I have purchased some content on lame-o geocities Hosting (no domain).

the stuff has extremely high results in google.

i am going to put a nice new wrapper around the content and give it a domain/brand.

any advice for how to best 'move' the content without losing the google credibility this site has built up over the years?

thanks!

[Liquiteq]

hmm, difficult one. I don't believe you can use .htaccess even with the paid geocities Hosting. Depending on the scripts they will allow you to use, there may be an alternative for a permanent redirect. In some way, you need to be able to present the 301 server header.

[Simsi]

If you are simply moving hosts, ensure that the host server is in the same country as the Geocities one. Make sure it's not full of spam-infested other sites (go deidcated to be sure), and make sure all your filenames stay exactly as they are now.

It's still a risk, but that should minimise it.

[simon johnson]

301 or a 302 redirect will do it. It's a tough call... largely depends on if the new content is on the same domain or not.

[Liquiteq]

Simsi If you are simply moving hosts, ensure that the host server is in the same country as the Geocities one. Make sure it's not full of spam-infested other sites (go deidcated to be sure), and make sure all your filenames stay exactly as they are now.

This will not resolve the duplicate content issue. The source must indicate that the document has moved.

301 or a 302 redirect will do it. It's a tough call... largely depends on if the new content is on the same domain or not.

301 is what we need here, not 302. These indicate permanent and temporary redirection rules respectively, and factor into Googles interpretation of the content origin.

The issue is how he will acheive this on a geocities Hosting platform.

[Simsi]

This will not resolve the duplicate content issue. The source must indicate that the document has moved.

Sorry I was assuming the domain name stayed the same - just reread the OP and it doesn't In that case I'd suggest changing the Hosting from Geocities will harm ranking and there's little you can do about it except keep it there, though to what extend it will impact I'm not sure. Could be minor, but it's a bigger risk.

[HeavyLifting]

thanks for this advice.

still searching for the smartest way to do this.... i dont want to lose the google rank

[hostele]

You wana move some quality content from geocities site to a new domain, right ?

If this is the case, then there is a big chance you will lose your rankings. Its not just about redirect because there are other factors to consider, such as the google sandbox effect which will hit the new domain, and the google sandbox depindes on what keywords your targeting.

So, what is the content about and what are the main targeted keywords ?
If we are dealing with competitive keywords such as web Hosting, web design, real estate...etc then your new domain will play in the sandbox for a long time and a simple redirect will not get it out any time soon.

If we are dealing with non competitive keywords, then your new domain would hardly stay in the sandbox for 1-3 months, and 301 redirect would help it get out sooner.

[HeavyLifting]

i have accepted that i will probably lose rankings, be penalized for making the change....

what would happen if i created the 'new' pages (under new domain) and then changed all the current geocities pages by emptying them of all content to avoid the duplicate issue, and adding a meta refresh with wait time of zero.

?