[aprssig] APRS and google

[Stephen H. Smith]

Robert Bruninga wrote:
> After 15 years, Im about to lose all of my APRS web links here
> at the Naval Academy.  They want to move all pages to a single
> new server, which means all my URL's will change to a new
> address, and they will have better control over access..
>
> This disheartens me, since these web pages have tens of
> thousands of links from other sites, and Google recognizes them
> very near the top of the APRS list.
>
> I am assuming that there is no way to get Google to instantly
> recognize the new sites?  Or to transfer the statistics from the
> old sites to count for the new URL's?
>
> Just wonder if there is a solution to this delimma?
>
>   


How much time do you have for the transition?    If you can have an 
overlap of a few months, replace each existing page at the current 
server with a simple one that does a redirect to the new location.  
Google's spiders rescan existing known sites at least every two or three 
weeks.  [I know this since new pages added to my site that are linked to 
from other pages on the site show up typically two-three weeks after 
being put online.] The spiders will follow newly-discovered links on 
existing pages to the corresponding pages on the new server, and quickly 
learn the new pages.   I have moved my site twice over the last three 
years.  

Here's an example of a page on my original server on AOL's member page 
that points to the equivalent page on my present WA8LMF.net domain:

     http://members.aol.com/wa8lmf/ham/

Some people place pages that automatically re-direct after a second or 
two, but I prefer static pages that require the user to manually click 
on the new link.   This makes the user aware that the link has changed, 
and givers them enough time to actually read and note the changed 
address, and to DELETE the old address from their favorites or bookmarks 
lists.


--

Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com
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