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Hope someone can assist with this DNS/Redirection issue. I'll try to keep this to the point.

There are two domains and two subdomains to deal with.

olddomain.com is with registrar A. newdomain.com is with registrar B. Neither registrar is our web host and neither can do a 301 redirect (they did a 302 instead when asked for a 301).

Web host is Duda, a site building platform similar to Wix, who do not host domains.

olddomain.com needs to point to www.newdomain.com

www.olddomain.com needs to point to www.newdomain.com

newdomain.com needs to point to www.newdomain.com

www.olddomain.com has many backlinks associated with it.

newdomain.com also has a lot of high value backlinks associated with it.

All those backlinks are currently being "lost" and also Google is seeing newdomain.com and www.newdomain.com as duplicate content which I think is down to incorrect DNS records.

New site was rushed through for internal commercial reasons without regard for the SEO side of things so hence this predicament.

Can this be solved even though I can't host the domains with the site host?

I have limited technical understanding in this area.

Thank you very much.

Sar

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  • Why can't you host the domains with your site host? When you register a domain at any registrar, you can point it where you want for hosting.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Commented May 17, 2018 at 19:03
  • Hi Stephen and thanks for your comment. Duda do not offer services as a domain host. The domains are pointed at Duda and they work, but the redirects aren't done in a way Google "respects", so all the sites backlinks have been lost and rankings have gone down the pan.
    – Sartino
    Commented May 17, 2018 at 19:05

2 Answers 2

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Here are some options what I could recommend.

  1. The main goal is to point your old domain to the new domain server IP and get rid of Duda services.
  2. When the old domain is pointed to the new domain server, just do proper server-side domain canonicalisation, i.e. in a .htaccess file.

If you can't do all this, then 302 redirects will pass all your link juice anyway, so you are not loosing all that old backlink stuff. The issue with 302 redirects is, that it's theoretically is as a temporary and Google will keep all these links in SERPs, but anyway, if someone clicks on these links, the visitor will be redirected to your new domain.

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  • This is it in a nutshell but to do this in an optimized way there are a few caveats. If your web host allows multiple domain hosting in any form you should let your DNS entries point there and do proper server side 301 redirects to handle everything. How to do each part depends on the specifics.
    – Willtech
    Commented May 21, 2018 at 12:37
  • Hi gintsg and thanks for the reply, however the site with Duda is brand new so I can't relocate it. I read that 302 redirects dont pass "link juice" and that I need to use a 301. Do you have a source for your info about the 302 so I can read further?
    – Sartino
    Commented May 22, 2018 at 10:04
  • @Sartino here you go: moz.com/blog/301-redirection-rules-for-seo
    – gintsg
    Commented May 22, 2018 at 10:24
  • Very useful. I'll read that thoroughly. Thank you.
    – Sartino
    Commented May 22, 2018 at 15:46
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Instead of using your registrar's limited DNS facilities, delegate your domains to a DNS service such as Zoneedit, easyDNS or any other major DNS facility to manage your DNS for flexible and correct DNS setup, and email redirects and more.

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