<p>Folks,<br></p><p>Client is changing site name (e.g. from <a href="http://oldname.com">http://oldname.com</a> to <a href="http://newname.com">http://newname.com</a>)</p><p>Server location not moving (files and db staying put as is). </p>
<p>Site has been up for a while and SEO concerns are present.</p><p>The site is on a server running LAMP and CPanel.</p><p><strong>W</strong><strong>hat I've done</strong>:</p><ol><li>At domain registration site for new name I've set the name servers to the current site.</li>
<li>At CPanel at current site I've added the new domain as a "Parked" domain</li><li>At CPanel I've done a 301 redirect, enabling the wildcard feature.</li></ol><p><strong>The only thing that isn't working properly:</strong></p>
<ul><li>Wildcard redirects use "dirty" urls. Example: user types in: <a href="http://oldname.com/blog">oldname.com/blog</a> and the redirect goes to <a href="http://newname.com/index.php?q=blog">newname.com/index.php?q=blog</a>.</li>
</ul><p>That page shows up fine, but I'd prefer the url be: <a href="http://newname.com/blog">newname.com/blog</a>. Once on <a href="http://newname.com/index.php?q=blog">newname.com/index.php?q=blog</a> if you click on any internal links, the "dirty" url goes away and everything is perfect.</p>
<p>One response is, "It could be worse!"</p><p>But I really would like to fix this.</p><p><strong>T</strong><strong>wo questions</strong>:</p><ol><li>How can I get the redirect to redirect to the clean URL?</li>
<li>Do you see anything wrong in my procedure (maybe there is a problem that I'm simply not noticing yet)</li></ol><p>Thanks much!</p><p>Shai</p>