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I did the redirect from my old domain store to a new domain using 301 rules on .htaccess as simplified below:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /store/catalogsearch/result/index/ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ http://www.newdomain.com/? [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /([^/]+/)*(default|index)\.(html|php|htm)\ HTTP/ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(([^/]+/)*)(default|main|index)\.(html|php|htm)$ http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,NC]

RewriteRule ^store/?$ http://www.newdomain.com [L,NC,R=301] 
RewriteRule ^store/index\.php$ http://www.newdomain.com [L,NC,R=301]
RewriteRule ^store/directory/?$ http://www.newdomain.com/new-directory-1/ [L,NC,R=301]
RewriteRule ^store/product\.html$ http://www.store.com/product [L,NC,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?olddomain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,NE,L]

But after months, my Page Authority still is 1 against 17 on old domain. So, I have some questions:

  1. Do I need to have a rule to redirect robots and sitemap files from my old domain to the new domain?
  2. Do I need to keep my robots and sitemap files in old domain?
  3. How long does it take to recover my old Page Authority if possible?
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  • Just to clarify, you're referencing Moz's Page Authority and not Google's PageRank, which is no longer being updated, right?
    – dan
    Commented May 12, 2017 at 0:55
  • You're right @dan, but I mixed both, because my links position and visits have dropped a lot on Google. My old domain, Page Authority and Domain Authority, wasn't transferred to my new domain. How can I do that? Where am I wrong?
    – Hallan
    Commented May 12, 2017 at 1:43
  • Two things. I am not entirely clear of your goals, however, if you are no longer using the old domain, generally, a simpler redirect code that redirects the entire site to another is typical. Be that as it may, do not put much if any stock in 3rd party tools. One, they are notoriously slow, and two, they are fairly inaccurate. Moz does not have my confidence. The only tools you should put faith in are the ones offered by Google and Bing. Any scoring by Moz likely does not reflect reality.
    – closetnoc
    Commented May 12, 2017 at 3:13
  • Thanks for your answer @closetnoc. But, what do you think about the sitemap and robots file on my old domain? Do I need or can I delete them on my old domain? Do I need to redirect those files in .htaccess to my new domain? Do I need to keep the old sitemap on Google Webmaster of my old domain?
    – Hallan
    Commented May 12, 2017 at 10:55
  • Again, it is about intent. If you are not using the old domain anymore, you would just redirect all requests to the new site using one simply!e redirect and not individual requests. If you are not intending to use the domain name anymore, then the robots.txt and Htaccess files are not needed on the old domain. Use the code in this answer if you no longer intend to use the old domain. webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/84391/…
    – closetnoc
    Commented May 12, 2017 at 15:12

1 Answer 1

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I would say you should check your ranking in Google, Webmaster tools instead of worrying about PA.

As long as your ranking is retained, PA shouldn't be an issue as eventually, MOZ algorithm will re-calculate.

Old Domain: Just ensure you got permanent 301 redirect for pages.

404: Worth checking if you got any 404 and if there is any then redirect to respective URL in the new domain.

New Domain: Have sitemap as per new domain. Configure webmaster tools and check if there is any 404.

The timing for PA: I would say focus on ranking on Google than thinking much about PA, i would say leave it for few weeks and check again.

Conclusion: Focus on 301 and 404 and ensure you got XML sitemap up on your new domain. Don't worry much about PA it will update eventually.

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  • Thanks for answer @TopQna. But, what do you think about the sitemap and robots file on my old domain? Do I need or can I delete them? Do I need to redirect those files in .htaccess to my new domain? Do I need to keep the old sitemap on Google Webmaster of my old domain?
    – Hallan
    Commented May 12, 2017 at 10:52
  • If you got HTML sitemap then yes redirect them to new HTML sitemap on new domain. But as far as XML sitemap and robots.txt file on old server are concerned, you don't need to do anything there because they just help what to crawl and what not to crawl. And based on 301, search engines will know to go and crawl the new domain.
    – TopQnA
    Commented May 12, 2017 at 11:03
  • On Google Webmasters, my old domain sitemap.xml is showing as not found due the redirects on .htaccess. So, can I delete it without problems @TopQnA?
    – Hallan
    Commented May 12, 2017 at 14:22
  • Let me explain by an example. Let's say if you had a website: example.com with 150 pages and you changed the domain to: examplenew.com and you redirected (301) all old pages to respective pages on the new domain. Then don't worry about Google webmaster of the old domain. Just look into webmaster of the new domain. Hope this clarifies.
    – TopQnA
    Commented May 13, 2017 at 0:55

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