Google Product Forums

Re: Google custom search is not working after changing by blog address


omr Apr 19, 2012 6:41 PM
Posted in group: Google Custom Search

Categories: Troubleshooting and Bugs :

@ meenal19119:

(Note: I am not a Google employee.)


In addition to the preceding suggestions:

Another issue to consider is that your "new" site now contains copies, and updated versions, of pages that were originally taken from your "old" site.  Therefore you may want to consider taking further action to avoid some possible problems that can arise with "duplicate content."  For more information please see:

  http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66359

One solution would be to configure a "redirect" from the old site to the new.  This would involve asking the administrator of the old site's web server to configure that server to issue a type of response called a "301 redirect" in response to requests for pages on the old site.

The term "301 redirect" refers to the use of HTTP status code 301 in this type of response.  Status code 301 indicates that the requested resource (page) has been moved 'permanently' to its new location.  In this case it is important for the server administrator to set up the web server to use the correct status code, 301 (not 302).

For more information about "301 redirects" please see:

  http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93633

When a web browser or search crawler requests a page on the old site, the 301 redirect response would instruct the browser or crawler to instead request the corresponding page on the new site.

For example, if a web browser or search crawler requests the page located at http://markis.com/lg/ag.html on the old site, then that site's web server would issue a response with HTTP status code 301 ("Moved Permanently") and indicating the corresponding URL on the new site, at http://phillyecoguide.com/ag.html.  The browser or crawler would then contact the new site's web server and request that page.

Search engines recognize that the type 301 redirect indicates that the requested resource has been moved 'permanently' to its new location.  As further discussed on the pages linked above, this is one way to help avoid some possible problems relating to duplicate content.

-- omr