Moving Forum to New Domain

[Pawan]

Hi Friends,


I have SMF forum ver. SMF 2.0.4 which is on domain http://xyz.com/forum , now I want this forum to be moved to new domain say http://forum.abc.com


Can I know how to start and how to complete this migration without loosing any search engine traffic and SERP. Also without any loss of Forum data.

Thanks in Advance.

[kat]

This help, at all?

http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Hosting_-_How_do_I_move_my_SMF_forum_to_a_different_host

[Dav999]

Also, you need to update to 2.0.9 ASAP.

[Pawan]

Also, you need to update to 2.0.9 ASAP.

Is there any security threat in my version ?

[Pawan]

This help, at all?

http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Hosting_-_How_do_I_move_my_SMF_forum_to_a_different_host

Thanks @K, that much I know, what about search engine traffic and how to redirect traffic to new domain.

[kat]

I believe there are a few security holes that were fixed, since your version...

Will you still own your old domain? Can you use a redirect?

Google might have a doc on moving domains. I'll see if I can find something, for you.

[kat]

Seems to be rather a lot, in cyber-space...

https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=opera&q=seo+changing+domain+names&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest&gws_rd=ssl

[Kindred]

1- yes...   there were several security issues between 2.0.4 and 2.0.9 - including one or two major ones, IIRC
2- move the content to the new server and apply the new domain with repair_settings.php
3- as long as you STILL CONTROL the old domain, you can use htaccess to do a 301 redirect -- which will tell google and the other decent search engines that the page has permanently moved. After about 3-6  months, you can disable the old domain entirely.

If you do not control the old domain, then you are going to have issues....

[Pawan]

I believe there are a few security holes that were fixed, since your version...

Will you still own your old domain? Can you use a redirect?

Google might have a doc on moving domains. I'll see if I can find something, for you.

I am not able to find patch for SMF 2.0.4 to SMF 2.0.9 .

[Pawan]

Now I am patching from 2.0.4 to 5 and then so on till 9, so Can I remove other patch versions, like if I am in 9, so can I remove, 7, 6 and others ?

[Acans]

If you mean, once you install 2.0.4 to 2.0.5 patch can you delete it from the package manager? I don't see why not, since you won't be uninstalling it to downgrade your SMF version.

[a10]

3- as long as you STILL CONTROL the old domain, you can use htaccess to do a 301 redirect -- which will tell google and the other decent search engines that the page has permanently moved. After about 3-6  months, you can disable the old domain entirely.

Yes, definitely keep the old domain for a while, if possible. Did a move some time ago, used htaccess and google etc started indexing the new domain almost immediately, worked very well. Kept the redirect for some months.