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My client is a CPA firm that had a website built with a CPA site builder company. They no longer want that site, but I have earned them good rank with many of their local keywords. We have designed a new site and sent them an htaccess file with correct redirects, but they are not responding and won't implement the redirects.

Is there any way to save the link authority of the old urls on my new site? I have domain access (GoDaddy) but no cpanel access for the old site to add the htaccess file. Right now, I have forwarded the (OLD).net site to the (NEW) .com site, but I think I will lose all link authority of those previous .net links. Any suggestions?

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    Since you have "domain access" presumably you've changed the DNS to point to your new site (is this what you mean by "forwarded"?) - can't you implement the redirects at the new site? – MrWhite Nov 30 '16 at 0:41
  • If you have set the DNS setting for example.net to your new server, any request for example.net will not show example.com or example.net without doing some work on the server. Do you have access rights to the new host? If so, you can create a site example.net and simply point the directory path to example.com. Cheers!! – closetnoc Nov 30 '16 at 2:39
  • Thanks guys. Yes, w3dk I set up a forward in Godaddy from the .net to the .com site. They call it a "forward" in GoDaddy, which is pointing the DNS. I tried uploading the redirects on the .com site, but I think the old site urls (i.e.cpasite.net/tax-help is just forwarding to cpasite.com since the whole domain is forwarded and not individual links. I need help pointing those individual links to my new links without placing a htaccess file on the old (.net) server. – SCook Nov 30 '16 at 3:46
  • Thanks closetnoc! That might work. Are you suggesting a 301s? I'm not sure how to point a directory path, but I will research that. Appreciate the help guys. – SCook Nov 30 '16 at 3:48
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You will have to transfer the website to a new Web Hosting Provider who allows Advanced DNS. Once the name servers have been update, you can then reupload the website content and/or create a cName or .htaccess to redirect the website. Similar to this KB Article although instead of moving your DNS to point to Office 365, you move them to point to your new website!

https://customer.boxne.com/knowledgebase/28/How-to-setup-DNS-for-Office-365-in-cPanel.html

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  • Thanks Chris! I'll give that a try and read this article. – SCook Nov 30 '16 at 4:57
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Since you have "domain access" you can (in theory) point the domain (via DNS) to your new host and then implement the same .htaccess redirects at the new site? (You don't need the old site.)

...but I think the old site urls (i.e.cpasite.net/tax-help is just forwarding to cpasite.com

But that sounds like an HTTP redirect, not a DNS thing? Check the network traffic to make sure exactly what is happening. (You don't want GoDaddy to 3xx redirect requests.)

You need to set an A record (or change the NAMESERVERS) at your domain registrar (ie. GoDaddy) to point to the new host. You must then tell the new host to accept requests to the old domain. If you are using cPanel then you can do this by creating an "Add-on" (or "Parked") domain.

Now your new site is accessible by both the old and new domain names.

You can then implement the same .htaccess redirects at the new site as you were trying to do at the old host.

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