creating a new "website"

[soapguru50]

Hello - anyone there at the wee hours of the morning?

I have just created my first website with powweb and oscommerce. Now I want to begin working on an existing website we have that pays our bills, so I'm frightened to move it/change it.

What I want to do is create it on pow web with my current account, then move it when all is done to a new pow web account, but am totally confused as to what to do. Do I create a new database, a new file, what?

can anyone help at 3:00 in the morning?

[Trog]

Your information is a little vague and more information would be useful. Do you have a backup of your website anywhere, if not I'd recommend doing one, I have backups for every websites I have created just in case, I even have backups of websites that haven't existed in over five years. Does your website utilise a MYSQL database?

The first step you need to take if you have no backup is to create one, connect to your current host with your favourite FTP program and copy all the files onto your pc, you now have a backup. There is no need to upload it to your current account and then move it again, either set it up as a serviced domain on your current account or send it straight to your new account.

Simply upload it all onto your powweb account, and change the DNS settings to point your domain in its new place, and there you have it unless you are using a database, in which you will need to copy the data and upload it to your powweb database to complete the transfer. That is basically how a website is moved, it is a little general as I did not know the specifics but you should be able to use this information to do the job.

[soapguru50]

Thanks for answering and trying to help! I know I was vague, CAUSE I HAVEN'T GOT A CLUE WHAT I'M DOING, but I think it was answered in a chat last night.

The website I have (that pays the bills) has been up and running for 4 years so I'm terrified to mess with it, but was created in Front Page, has over 150 pages and is DAUNTING task, plus the shopping cart I use is in the dark ages. So what I did, now, was simply created a new account in pow web and am NOT changing the DNS until the "new" website, using oscommerce (which I've been testing for the last month and believe will be AWESOME), is complete and working like a charm.

That shouldn't hurt my rankings in the search engines, correct?
(and thanks for the reminder on backing up!)

Sandy

[stevel]

If your new site has different URLs from the old one, you will want to add a .htaccess file with RedirectPermanent lines for each of the old pages. For example:

RedirectPermanent /oldpage1.html http://www.example.com/newpage1.php

This way, you'll keep your search engine ranking on the pages and the search engines will replace the old URL in their indexes with the new one. (Well, except for Yahoo and ask.com, which seem utterly clueless. Most everyone else, including Google, will get it right.)

[soapguru50]

UH, OH!

I thought I had just ONE Url, as in "mysite.com" (old site) and when I change the DNS to point to the pow web package that I also named "mysite.com" (same name), that all the old pages would be wiped out (which is what I want)?

I'm pretty green! Please help! before I move and mess up our income!
Thanks, Sandy

[stevel]

You're talking about the domain name, which indeed will be the same. But the URL of individual pages also includes the page filename. If you are switching to osCommerce, your product pages, for example, will look like http://www.example.com/product_info.php?products_id=34 If that's the new page for "Purple Widget" and your old site's page was something like http://www.example.com/widget-purple.html, then search engines will not know that the new page replaces the old unless you use the RedirectPermanent lines in .htaccess.

What will happen instead is that they'll try to go back to the old page, which won't exist, and it will get a 404 error. That means you drop from the index (again, unless it's Yahoo or ask.com, which seem to hold onto dead URLs for years.) Poof goes your ranking. Eventually, it will find and index your new pages, but you'll be starting over from scratch.

Since you are using osCommerce, let me make some suggestions for before you go live

- In the admin panel, Configuration, Sessions, turn on Prevent Spider Sessions and turn off all of the "Check" options. Download Updated spiders.txt (http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,2455) and replace the file includes/spiders.txt with the one in this contribution (which I maintain.) Check once a month for new editions. This will prevent search engines from getting sessions and putting the session IDs in the index.
- Install the contribution Header Tags Controller (http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,207) This is the single best thing you can do to make your site look better to search engines.
- Install All Products Page (http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,137)
- Add a robots.txt that keeps spiders out of where they don't belong. Here's a sample file (http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,2162)
- Consider installing Ultimate SEO URLs (http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,2823). This is a complicated contribution, but it really helps. I was skeptical at first but I saw the results on my own site. You can add this later, but the sooner you do, the better.

[soapguru50]

Thanks a BUNCH Steve!

I didn't know all that! Fortunately, I am working on a "test" site actually a new site, but am getting ready to begin tackling our original site that, as I said, pays the bills. I imagine it will take a month or so to accomplish that feat. I am immediately copying your "guidance" and will tackle one issue at a time over the next month.

One question. It sounds like you know what you're talking about. Will this post stay up on pow web "forever", so that as I walk through this process I can post again on this string if I encounter any problems?

Thanks again,
Sandy

[stevel]

Well, I have been using osCommerce for going on three years now, so a lot of this is personal experience. There is an e-commerce section of this forum where a lot of helpful tips are provided. I'll make sure that my suggestions are kept around.