Delete my wordpress.com after going to wordpress.org?
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Hi, I am in the process of transferring my blog over to my own hosting- http://chicagorants.com/ and am aware that my chicagorants.wordpress.com/ is still up and running. Should I delete it to optimize search terms for my new site? or is there no harm in letting it just sit there?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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DON’T DELETE THE OLD SITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have several options if you keep the old site
You don’t have domain mapping in place so your new domain name will be starting over – transfer everything and double check the new site 3 times to make sure the transfer worked.
Then get the domain redirect / forwarding so visitors to the old site will be sent to the new site – or if you don’t want to pay for the forward then put a note telling your regulars to visit the new site – me – I would do the forward thing – you lose a lot less traffic that way and the search engines are told about your new site when they visit the old site – helps cut down on the 404 errors.
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PS – once everything is working to and on the new site you can delete the old CONTENT on the old site – NEVER delete the old site – once an address is deleted it is gone forever – even from you and it costs you nothing to just sit here.
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@chicagoranter, @auxclass is right, keep the site on WordPress.com for awhile, but because they are the same name it will cause confusion in google results later. It would be a shame for people to click on your old WordPress.com site and see nothing. I suggest that you get your new one set up exactly the way yo want and when it is perfect and happy with the new site, I would delete the old one. Just my opinion.
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Thanks! I appreciate your help! These forums are always so helpful! I was hoping there was a way out of paying the $12.00/yr for the redirect, given my site is fairly new and growing. I will keep the old site’s content up until my new one is more established. I’ll probably delete the content to avoid confusion, but still hold onto the account.. thanks guys!
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Consider posting for wp.com site:
No matter how you got here… where you should really be is:
xyzzy.net
Still, since you’re here, here are some of our….
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@ranter – you are getting some traffic and loyal fans – so if it was my site this is what I would do – mostly in this order – remember – DON’T upset your loyal fans
1) Transfer and get things running on new site
2) Buy site redirect for one year
3) Make a Post “I have moved to here…..” (If you are using the standard WordPress.COM email system your fans will need to re-subscribe)
4) When a new Post is made on the new site – make a two sentence Post on the old site with a link to the new Post. – Do this a couple of four times to catch your RSS feed fans.
5) Sometime in the next year – clean the old site up to get rid of old duplicate content – but no hurry – you do want it to be done by the time the redirect expires –
6) Make sure the last Post at the top has a note that you have moved and leave that there forever! If someone has gotten to your site from an old link they will not be lost – I still get some traffic from a link that is 3 years old to my site.Good luck & rant on!
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