How can I keep incoming links when I move to wordpress.org?
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I have wordpress.com site and I wanted to have all the content on a web host so I could load adsense.
I downloaded wordpress; uploaded it to the webhost and then exported the posts from the wordpress.com site and imported it to the webhost and it works.
[As a side note, I see that the site is calling for the jpegs from the wordpress.com site because the only thing that gets downloaded and uploaded in the hxml is the posts and not the jpegs.]
But, my question is about the links coming in to the wordpress.com site. I want to try to preserve them without having to go to everyone and ask them to add another link address or change their link address. Of course if they change the link address I will lose their link to the wordpress.com site but that is a minor problem, I think.
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The links will have to be changed, as it’s a different domain, and so will any internal links. In addition, you’ll lose your page rank and Technorati rank.
Once you’ve got the new site the way you’d like it, you should make the wp.com private to avoid being penalized by search engines for duplicate content. You could delete it, of course, but it’s nice to have a backup of your work to date or unless self-hosting turns out not to be right for you.
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Thank you ellaella. Quick follow-up question: Am I correct that if I decide NOT to get the incoming links, that this would not affect my page rank? In other words, that the mere fact of having two sites with duplicate content would not cause google to change the rank.
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You’re going to lose your page rank for at least one cycle no matter what. You’ll be starting all over with a new domain. Duplicate content will only make it worse for you.
I know it’s a pain, I’ve been through it. Making the change, even with domain mapping, as early in a blog’s life is always best.
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When you say I am going to lose page rank, Do you mean the page rank in the wordpress.com site. Am I going to be penalized in the wordpress.com site because I have duplicate content elsewhere?
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No, I mean your Google page rank (currently 4 out of 10) will revert to 0 and it is Google that will penalize you. You won’t have any more ties to the wordpress.com meta tag pages.
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Short answer: yes, but nobody knows how much this is a factor. You are going to lose ALL pagerank and all Technorati rank when you change blog URLs regardless of other factors. The duplication penalty is just in addition to going down to nothing in the first place.
I would suggest either removing your WordPress blog contents entirely except a static page saying “This blog has moved HERE” with a link to your new site, or setting it private altogether.
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Thank you both for explaining the downside of all of this.
My google page rank on http://photographworks.wordpress.com/ was 5 only a day or two ago, before I set up the new site.
The fact is however that I have a new site with posts taken from the old site, and I want the new site so I can put up adsense ads.
So I cannot see that I can win in the short term if google’s policy is to penalize for duplicate content irrespective of the reason for it.
Therefore I think I will put up a post on http://photographworks.wordpress.com/saying the blog has moved, as you suggest, raincoaster, with a link to the new site at http://www.photographworks.com/ but I will do it without deleting the posts on the old site. Although this is likely to hurt both sites I will just let things develop as they will for a while to see what happens.
Then as my stats start to show more people visiting the new site, I may well delete the posts off the old site but keep the images uploaded there – otherwise I am going to have to upload them on the new server and remap them to the various posts – not a pleasant thought.
:)
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In the short term you cannot win. Long-term with your own URL, you will win. It will take at least four months or so to regain lost status, in my experience.
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My google page rank on http://photographworks.wordpress.com/ was 5 only a day or two ago, before I set up the new site.
I know of several page ranks that have changed in the past 3 days, so I think the timing is a coincidence.
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Can I ask about the Google page rank? Mine has never recovered since I started domain mapping. Is that the duplication penalty to which you refer? (Because the posts show both on my mapped blog and the wordpress.com one)
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Mine has never recovered either. I am still a point lower, and the shift happened a year and a half ago. When you start a new URL I think Google just throws you to the dogs and sees if you climb out of it again. Remember, Pagerank is based on some black science that includes the number of links to you. If those links are going to your OLD URL I guess Google would consider that duplicated, but this is just a guess. Google hates me and has sandboxed me before.
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I wish I could help you, Vivian, but Google and how exactly the PR works is a mystery to me, although I do know duplicate content is a no-no. One blog i see frequently is 6 months old and and has a sum total of 7 posts. Maybe 8. The other day its PR went from either 0 or 1 to 4. I throw up my hands after that.
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rain – I thought yours had come back. Mine is a point lower, too, after a 14 months.
ella – with domain mapping, I’m always going to have duplicate content because the same posts show up on both my mapped blog and the original url. (The mapping doesn’t mask the old url.)
Oh well. Good thing I don’t worry about stuff like this ;)
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Vivian – Have you explored Google Webmaster tools? After I did the domain mapping, I verified my blog and chose the mapped url as the primary one. I think I went so far as to delete the unmapped url.
(Sheesh, it’s only been 6 months and I’m already fuzzy about it, but I do remember being kind of afraid the first couple times I tinkered in there.)
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I have also been considering this so I can enable Google Adsense, however after reading the replies I don’t know if I would want to take the time to get my site back up to its ranking right now. If only wordpress.com would allow adsense…
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