Advice on domain/server/file name change

[robynd]

Hello all,

My client has an old html site on a windows server. We have redesigned the site using Wordpress and it is on a different server (Linux) and a different domain (currently blocked from the SE's). They must change their domain name so we are stuck with that. The site structure did change; there was no way around that.

I cannot really move the windows html site to a linux server prior to changing over.

I do not have admin access to the windows server - it is a shared server - I can, however, redirect the domain or do an asp 301 redirect in each page and keep them on the server.

They have some good rankings that we really don't want to lose. The site is also huge.

I can keep the old site hosted on the windows server for another year.

I'm baffled with how to do this with the least amount of potential loss in ranking. I think my options are (but I'm not 100% sure):

1. redirect the domain on the windows server, alert google thru GWT, use a 301 redirect plugin in WP to send the old pages to the new pages and do a custom 404 for any stragglers.

2. redirect each page on the server using the asp 301 redirect script and do a custom 404 for any stragglers (do I still do a domain redirect in this case?) and of course alert google in GWT.

What a mess!! Any ideas are much appreciated. They want this launched but we need to be very careful.

Regards,
Robyn

[DarrenHaye]

What a mess!! Any ideas are much appreciated. They want this launched but we need to be very careful.

Regards,
Robyn

I think you're right not to jump into it.

If it's a profitable site and has good rankings I would honestly not mess about with it at all If I wasn't sure, I would hire an SEO to oversee the move to make sure everything is done right.

I would suggest joshz, NathanielB or tstolber, they all have excellent technical knowledge.

I'm sure they would all offer their advice for free here, and they may well, but again if it's a profitable site and it's ranking well I wouldn't risk any mishaps doing it myself.

[robynd]

Thank you so much Darren!