Hello, in general, our website is outdated both morally and externally, despite the fact that we have carried out a lot of promotion over time.

We have developed a new and modern website. Now, the question is how to safely transition from the old website to the new one without losing our current domain.

Currently, I only have one idea, but it requires a significant amount of time. The idea is to transfer all the SEO details to the new website while keeping it on the same domain, but in a different folder. For example, the old website will be located at mysite.com, while the new one will be at mysite.com/shop. Additionally, we can add a pop-up window on the old website to inform visitors about the existence of the new website.

Is this approach correct or are there even better alternatives?

1) One option is to update the site's design without changing the underlying engine. Essentially, you would give the old site a fresh new look while keeping everything else as it is. This approach does not impact the site's ranking in any way.

2) Another possibility is to update both the design and the engine of the site, while preserving the existing URLs. For example, if you had an article at site.com/article1, the new engine would also have the article at site.com/article1.

3) If you need to introduce a completely new logic to the site, you can either set up 301 redirects at the site level (if there are tools available for this) or configure it at the server level.

For instance, if your article was originally at site.com/article1 and now it has moved to site.com/home/item1, a rule can be implemented to direct the search engine from the old address to the new page. This ensures that all positions are maintained and everything goes smoothly.

If the site structure allows, you can use automation controls to set up these rules. However, if the situation is more complex, you may need to write redirects for each individual page. We had a similar project where we had to handle over 5000 redirects.

P.S. The option of using a pop-up and similar methods could lead to a loss in rankings. When a user visits the site and encounters a sudden banner or prompt, they might leave or be directed to a new site. This can negatively impact the site's standing. It's best to follow the approaches I mentioned above.

You can launch a new site on a subdomain or within a folder, set it to "disallow" in the robots.txt file, and make all necessary adjustments to ensure its functionality.

Once the site is ready, you can remove the "disallow" directive from the robots.txt file, allowing search engine crawlers to access the new version. Additionally, if you are using Apache as a web server (which is often the case with hosting providers), you can redirect traffic to the new version using built-in tools or simple configurations.

By deploying the new site in this manner, you have the opportunity to refine and perfect it before making it the main version. It allows for a smooth transition and ensures that users and search engines can access the updated site seamlessly.

The "SEO details" you mentioned refer to the current URLs on the old site that are indexed by search engines. Changing the URLs would result in new pages that don't carry the same ranking weight, potentially leading to 404 errors for the old URLs.

If it's not feasible to maintain the exact old URLs (up to the symbol!), you will need to create a 301 redirect for each URL, pointing it to the corresponding new URL. While this task shouldn't be too challenging for developers, it is necessary to preserve search engine rankings.

Regardless, the launch of the new site will have some impact on search engine rankings. This effect may not necessarily be positive, but I hope for improvements. Even if you successfully retain all the content and structure from the old site, certain elements, such as the tree structure and keyword density, may change due to additions or removals. It's crucial to consider these factors to ensure a smooth and comfortable transition.

Overall, migrating to a new site requires careful planning and consideration of various aspects to maintain or enhance your position in search engine results.