My content is being interpreted as duplicate because the site never moved, only the domain name changed. So I’ve fallen off the map completely and am looking for a solution.

So yes, research is essential. In my case however, I didn’t understand what questions to ask until after the damage had been done.

I would suggest that a thorough approach to researching a platform be used.

Any individual would want to ensure that a migration from one platform to another goes as smoothly as possible.

I did notice that I did lose my ranking.

I knew that might be a possibility, but I figured it was better to do in now (my site is 11 months old) then later.

Gisele

As for migration of any kind, yes – if your URL strings are going to change, you need to do a 301 redirect for them. If your blog post was:

http://www.mysite.com/hot-blog-post.htm

..and the new blog post is:

http://www.mysite.com/hot_blog_post.htm

…then you create an .htaccess file for the root of your new site – a text file that, once uploaded, you rename to ‘.htaccess’ – and include this line:

redirect 301 /hot-blog-post.htm http://www.mysite.com/hot_blog_post.htm

I did this many times for high ranking sites and lost zero ranking and PR.

This same method can be used if you move from an old domain to a new one or have several domains but don’t want duplicate content issues.

If you assign 3 domains all to the same folder on your webhost where your site lives – that’s duplicate content. If you assign two of those domains their own folders and create an .htaccess file in each 301 redirect to the main site, you’re golden.

Will I be penalized by search engines for having same contents in two different domains(current blogspot and the new one)?
What about new PR?

One is here: http://scott.yang.id.au/code/permalink-redirect/

I am making this part of my future business planning process as I do not want to be stung by this again.

For future reference, the way to avoid the problems you had would be to use a 301 redirect, which you most likely could have applied in a single global rule.

This tells google 3 things

1. This page doesn’t exist here anymore, please drop it from you index
2. The page still exists at a new location
3. Here’s the new location, please index this now

Which is how you transition url structures when migrating a site from an old build to a new build, or as in your case, from an old CMS to a new one.

I won’t start dropping links, but I have a more detailed article on 301 redirects on my site for anyone who is interested!

Good thing that I started off with wordpress … I have tried other CMS systems before and never really got a feel for them so when starting my serious blog I went ahead with with WP

I’m afraid of losing some of my “readers”. But I will warn them and have the other blog up and running before my current one goes off line.

I am a little afraid that my lack of knowledge (zero) of code is going to be a problem for me on WP.

If anyone knows if the knowledge of code is going to be a problem for me…please drop me a line…

Live From Las Vegas
The Masked Millionaire

Is this because of your platform migration? Also How recently did you make the transfer?