questions on traffic after changing web hosts

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MK

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Jul 29, 2008, 7:37:19 AM7/29/08
to Hippo Internet Marketing Discussion
We have changed web hosts for all of our sites - carolinaparent.com,
charlotteparent.com, and piedmontparent.com. We made the DNS change on
the first site on June 28, the next site on July 8, and the final site
on July 22.

The new web host copied our existing sites and databases onto a
temporary URL on their server, for each site. After testing the site
on their temporary URL for a short period, it was moved to a permanent
site on the new host and we then changed the DNS from our old site to
the new one, with expected propogation time of 1-3 days.

The sites that we used to use, on the old server, are scheduled to
come down July 31.

Despite the change in the DNS, occurring almost a month ago for the
first site, we continue to see some low level traffic on the old
sites. (We have been looking at the analytics provided by each web
host. Livestats for the old web host, AWStats for the new one)

If the DNS change points people to our site on the new web host (and
most visits do go to the new host), why would anyone continue to find
the old site?

Will taking down the old sites on July 31 help this situation? What
will happen to the visitors who are still finding the old site at this
point?

We have not deleted or changed the URL's on our pages, only the DNS
for the site. Is there something we are overlooking that's going to
continue to have visitors searching unsuccessfully for the old site?

Corey

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Jul 30, 2008, 10:45:43 AM7/30/08
to Hippo Internet Marketing Discussion
Regarding the visitors that are still going to the old site, how are
they getting there? Is there a referrer? Are they coming via search
engines or another website or are they coming directly to the site
(with no referrer)?

Also, what percentage is still going to the old site? 1% 10% 50%?

Corey

MK

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Jul 31, 2008, 11:37:38 AM7/31/08
to Hippo Internet Marketing Discussion
Charlotte has dropped to about 5% of volume before the server change.
Very few referrals. Didn't see any from Google.
Piedmont is comparable to this. The only perplexing site is Carolina.

Carolina is about 13% of volume before server change, with most
referrals coming from carolinapa1.web135.discountasp.net, which is
apparently the temporary site we had in 2007 and was never taken
down. We discovered, in setting up the new sites, that webeditor's
contribute key was somehow editing this url. This has been corrected
now, but I'm thinking Google must have indexed this site, because
sometimes in a search we'll come up in two entries on Google, one
using www.carolinaparent.com, and one using
carolinapa1.web135.discountasp.net. (Carolina had 34 referrals from
Google in July, compared to a norm of 900+ prior to the change.) When
we discontinue discountasp (our old web host) this discountasp URL
will no longer work.

Is best course of action go ahead and drop discount asp as planned, to
get rid of this site, and therefore halt any more indexing in Google?
Will reinidexing the new site with search engines help to get rid of
the discount asp URL's that are out there?
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