If you are deciding to transfer your domain, redesign your site’s structure, or move from one domain to another, you now have the ability to inform Bing of this big move! Why is this useful you ask? To put it simply, you no longer have to worry about losing any credit you have previously earned with Bing from your old URLs. This tool is very much like 301 redirects, which basically tells search engines that your old URLs are now pointing to the new URLs, keeping the credit you earned still very much intact. Bing is developing tools to make their search engine more user-friendly so that they can continue to compete with Google.
Let’s go over two scenarios where this tool will be useful for webmasters:
Transferring Over a Domain Name:
Many webmasters, after a while, find that their site is lacking in some or maybe in all compartments; maybe they don’t have a blog section, or not enough content, or that their site just doesn’t stand out from the crowd. When this happens, they think about doing a site redesign. They simply want to change around the physical structure of the site; adding more content, like service area pages, service pages, blogs, etc. Making these changes will help with search engine optimization. But, when they do the transfer, what about their old URLs? What happens with them? Well, they just simply have to tell Bing, that their old URLs from the old site, is now pointing to the new site. That way they don’t lose any of the credit they earned from the previous site. Take this as a comparison, say you go to a college for a year, and you find that you don’t really like the people, or the environment you’re in, so you decide to transfer. Given that you past all your courses, wouldn’t you want all the credit you earned from you first college to transfer over to the new one? The answer is probably yes. The site move tool in Bing works just like that!
Moving from One Domain to the Another:
Some webmasters or business owners want to change the name of their domain name. Maybe when they first created their site, the domain they wanted was not available, and it is now; whatever the case, they want to change their domain name. This new tool by Bing allows you to change your domain name, and keep the credit you accumulated from you old domain name. Bing has been able to one up Google, who only allows webmasters to change their address.
This new tool adds more flexibility of their users. Bing cautions its users to continue implementing the 301 redirects. Their new tool simply helps speed up the work of the 301 redirects. Bing has decided to pull out all the stops, and has actually one upped Google! They seem to be creating a more easy to use search engine that gives their users more freedom and flexibility. Whether you are transferring over your domain name, or completely changing your name, Bing has now created an easy –to-use tool!
By Joe Giorgianni