Move/Migrate old site to WordPress on same domain – how to 301 redirect

Hi jumust, right after you remove the files for your main website, you will need to copy the files from your wordpress site into your root folder so that wordpress will then become your main website.

ANOTHER OPTION:
Another option that you have is to simply change the document root for your main domain. This would be less destructive as the first option (as you’re not going to need to delete any files), but it most likely will require that you contact your hosting provider for help. Updating your document root is basically telling the server that for domain.com, instead of loading the files directly in public_html, load the files from public_html/wordpress. Our support team is able to do this for our users, and I’m sure your host can do this for you as well.

You can find more info about this at Where should I upload my files? – The Document Root

Brad, you just nailed it!
I had to do this manually for a client who used a host that required
WP be installed in a sub-folder. One thing, though, I didn’t delete
the old site files.

The WP dev site was in a folder excluded by robots.txt with the WP
search settings set to off. then…

I built out the new WP site and recreated the pages I wanted to
transfer.

When everything was as I wanted it. I set the doc root via .htaccess
and let the support team do what you suggested.

In order to preserve inbound links and bookmarks that were built to the old site, I left those pages in place. Once the site root is
changed they’ll be invisible except for those who are directly linking
to the old pages.

I then (while the site root was updating) emptied the old site pages
of their content and replaced it with a javascript 301 redirect code.
Everything went smoothly.

The key for me was to plan it out on paper first. The execution is mostly copy, cut, and paste.

Hopefully Jumust is working from a local server. If so, it takes about
8 hours and 5 cups of coffee to do ~120 pages.

p.s.
(google “301 redirect for seo” for more help– if that’s the main
consideration)

Ok thanks guys, I have a consideration:

I then (while the site root was updating) emptied the old site pages
of their content and replaced it with a javascript 301 redirect code.

If I don’t remove old pages, and I don’t yse any javascript 301 redirect code, does wordpress redirect automatically the post with same name as we discussed above?

If so I should
– build the WP site in a Folder
– once I finished and copied all content from the old site I should let Hosting team change the root to Folder
– WP will redirect automatically the old posts to the new posts

RIGHT?

Hi Jumust,
Just a couple of questions.
What plaform is the old site on, and how many pages are you moving?

If so I should
– build the WP site in a Folder
– once I finished and copied all content from the old site I should let Hosting team change the root to Folder
– WP will redirect automatically the old posts to the new posts

Yes. Yes. and No.

Here’s the problem with redirecting the page content into WordPress:

These are dynamic pages. They only exist when you call for them. Your old site pages are in one database (?), while the new site pages are in another.

We have to use 301 to permanently redirect the old page names to the new page names. Whether it’s done
manually (i.e., scripting) or by plugin(?). The upside is that this
last part is the easiest. Or, rather, not the hardest. More
importantly, it’s the part that “saves the store”.

Actually, the javascript method I used is “frowned upon”. If you can’t use the .htaccess method, the HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently is more
correct. (Some of this has to do with what permissions you have and
what platform you’re moving from)

Here are plug and play scripts and coding for a variety of situations:
https://www.isitebuild.com/301-redirect.htm
https://www.phatz.com/301redirect.php
https://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php

Another thing I think worth mentioning– just for the sake of
perspective– is that acquiring links and se rankings + the traffic
that comes with them, is not a quick and easy process. Preserving those
benefits (in my opinion) might be worth the “stretch”. That’s what I
meant by “saves the store”.

Oh my Gosh it sounds tough now.

Firstly I’ll answer your questions @kdarkman:
– My old site is not on any platform open source, so just built with dreamweaver
– I’m going to move hundreds articles

Now according my discussion with @brad above we concluded that WordPress has a built in redirection method but now it has been discarded. So I’m confused I don’t know what to do, I think a safe and easy way would be:

1. INSTALL WORDPRESS IN A SUB-FOLDER
2. COPY ALL OLD POST IN WORDPRESS SITE MANUALLY
3. ASK HOSTING TEAM TO MAKE ROOT AS SUB-FOLDER
4. INSTALL WP REDIRECT PLUGIN AND FOR EACH NEW POST SET UP THE ORIGIN AND DESTINATION URL.

Please let me know your thoughts….

Jumust,

Actually it’s not tough, just time consuming. A flat html
Dreamweaver site is exactly what I moved from. I don’t know about the
redirect plugin. I never even looked for one.

You think the redirect is the hard part– not even close! It’s moving
the files that’s tedious– especially if they have a lot of contextual
links.

Here’s how I did it. You already have the first 3 areas down-pat.
Here’s the final step.

Set up your game plan on paper. Layout the structure for the WP site in advance so you’ll know what goes where.
[old folder names | old articles] –> [new categories | new articles]

Layout a calendar to schedule the tasks (10 articles/pages a day x 30
days = 300 articles). Ten articles = 30 minutes– tops!

Now… Your WP site isn’t live. You’re building it page by page. Open
two browser tabs so you can copy the old article to the WP article “shell” like this:

Open a DW html article in a browser just like it would be on the web.
Select all the text and copy it into a text file– the html tags
will be removed. Then copy it from the text file and paste it into the
WP editor. There’s your new un-formatted article. (You could really do
it w/out a text file– that’s just the way I did it.)

If you had inner site links in the text, make a note of what article
they are supposed to link to. Just set an empty link. You have to wait
until the final destination is determined. (I just kept my notes in a
text file, but if I did it again, I’d use a spreadsheet).

When WP site is finished, and while the new site root is being propagated, just go into Dreamweaver and open every file in the site, one-by-one or, in batches of tabs.

Insert the 301 redirect code using either the HTTP method (which I
would do “next time”)or with the javascript inside the head tags. Then delete all the content between the body tags. Copy-paste-delete-save, over and over again. That’s what worked for me.
What do you think?

Ok Perfect. Actually I’m not worried about moving content, I have a guy who’ll take care of this.

So the last question is:

– After I set up the site in subfolder, can I use the 301 redirect plugin instead of edit all files (and insert the 301 code)?
So while I’m coping posts I’ll set up the url too (the old one that should be redirected to the new post)

Finally I’ll propagate the new site root….

What do you think?

– After I set up the site in subfolder, can I use the 301 redirect plugin instead of edit all files (and insert the 301 code)?
So while I’m coping posts I’ll set up the url too (the old one that should be redirected to the new post)

If you were to edit each file individually, you could actually use php code to perform the redirect, and you could use the same php code on each page (simply copy and paste).

You could also poke around a bit and find a .htaccess rule that can do all of the redirecting for you. I’m not sure exactly how this will work, but we could do a bit of research and get you a good answer.

Actually let’s say that I’ll not open the old file in php, just I’ll copy the article content and paste it in the new Wp post.
So I’ll not put the redirect code in the old file but just with the WordPress redirect plugin I could set up in the Wp post admin the old url.

If there is an automatic way it would be wonderful so after I pasted all content I don’t need to do anything. Otherwise with the plugin above should be ok, right?

Please let me know if I didn’t catch what you said

I’m not clear on how this redirect plugin works. I’d like to hear more about it. I can’t imagine how it would be able to re-direct pages it didn’t create and can’t edit.

Maybe someone can fill us both in. Meanwhile I’m going to see if
I can find some more info about it. If I do, I’ll post it here.

That’s right, maybe that plugin works only between two wordpress site….or in the same wordpress site.

If I understood, the system should be able to get into old files…so maybe with .htaccess like Brad said…

How do you 301 redirect from Dreamweaver flat site to WordPress site?

Any help please post here

How do you 301 redirect from Dreamweaver flat site to WordPress site?

If you’re using dreamweaver, you can add the javascript code I mentioned above to redirect a user from one URL to another.

Let me know if I’ve misunderstood your question.

Brad, I agree with you on this– and Jumust I just found this 2009 thread on Google, i.e., AT Google.
https://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=5dbf9fb5506fbee8&hl=en

Sorry I don’t know how to explain, but just I can access to files of my old site from FTP, so no dreamweaver….even though I think it’s same, you are saying that I need to put the code into each file, right?

So no plugins, no automatic way with .htaccess:
I should build my WP site in subfolder, propagate the new root and then add the redirect code to each file…

Good!
So as from the google thread:

You can setup the WordPress site in a directory/subdomain and Block it from the bots.
Then every day, copy and paste a few articles.
over the next few weeks – you’ll have most of it done.
WP has a plugin for redirects … or you can use htaccess etc.

So should I use the redirect code in old files (btw which javascript code I have to put, and should I delete the content of each file as well)?
Again can I just use the wordpress plugin?

I