How do I fingerprint a dynamic URL?

Old URL is now displayed, with 4-year old, popular URL has now disappeared.

• In the mid-1990s, I had a URL. When I went to my current URL in 2000, I quit using the old URL, but redirected it to my current URL. Now, out of the blue, even though the redirect has been done *correctly*, the old URL now appears prominently in Google, with my 4-year old URL no longer existing ANYWHERE in Google. However, the other search engines not attached or related to Google, show my recent 2000 URL. What is up with this and, more importantly, how can I rectify it so my current URL is prominent?

• Answer:

  Hi again, Polebabe ~ Please remember that pointing domain name at the same content is not the same issue as creating duplicate content on your two sites. Search engines understand the need for having more than one domain name for whatever reason - from preserving brand names to covering common misspellings that your competition could exploit in their own behalf. Whatever the reason, either parking the other domains to point to the website with the content or a 301 redirect works just fine with all the major search engines, duplicate content will get you in trouble - as you have seen. Here's an excellent article written by Ralph Wilson on redirects, - http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/se_pointed_domains.htm While the article is almost a year old, the same information is as valid today as it was then. Jill Whalen's High Rankings discussion board also discusses 301 redirects, - http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5105 and you can do a search within the Google News discussion of Webmaster World, - http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/ The bottom line is that the duplicate content obviously hurt you, especially since the search engines dropped the domain you wanted. My advice is to use a 301 permanent redirect on the .htaccess of your whatdoyouwantla.com site, redirecting it to the taylormarsh.com site until such time as you have the taylormarsh.com site independently listed and indexed by your search engines. This also means not to further refer others to the old site, but to the new site; and do not try to continue listing the old site. It may take a few months now for the new site to be indexed and listed (and it may not, search engines can be so unpredictable), but hang in there and it will eventually work out. Search terms: * 301 redirect * site redirect I know this will work, but please don't expect it to happen overnight, this rarely does. Once you have redirected the old site to the new site, do write to the Google editors at [email protected] and explain what happened. (See "Other Reasons" your site might not be listed on Google), - ://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html Please note they say, "We do not make any guarantees about if or when we will re-include your site." On the other hand, Google and the other search engines are not so unreasonable as to not recognize an honest mistake and help you out. Remember, their goal is to serve the searcher the most relevant information in response to their query. Best of luck, Serenata Google Answers Researcher