Moved to SHOPIFY - but can’t get rid of square space?

Hello,

This question is primarily about submitting a site-map with google / “indexing” our website with google(?) so that it correctly appears as the first search for our business website. 

We have previously used Square Space for our website, www.beilbys.com, since 2018 - however Square space is quite incompatible with our industry (furniture retail in Australia, particularly South Australia). The domain “www.beilbys.com” is still valid until 2023, and I have switched off auto renew, as I have done with our square space website.

I’ve purchased the domain www.beilbys.com.au, to capture the Australian market, as we are a localised, Australian business, and that website is live, and we are using Shopify instead which allows for much better presentation of our products, and the overall site looks much better than previously using square space. (Especially on mobile phone view, the background image would cut out and distort, on square space).

I am having great difficulty with Google Search still showing our dead Square Space website as the first link to our business website. Even when I have turned the site to private. I have now just hidden all the pages and changed the background to “we have moved” with a link to our new website. 

I understand I cannot delete “robots.txt” from square space, as suggested by google - but it says I should prepare a sitemap or request an index for my new site? I have no idea what any of that means and none of the google explanations seem to provide any clarity.

Could anybody help by explaining how I can stop our old squarespace website showing on google and instead have our new website, www.beilbys.com.au showing up as the first result for our business?

Thank you!!

7 hours ago, Beilbys said:

We have previously used Squarespace for our website. The domain “www.beilbys.com” is still valid until 2023, and I have switched off auto renew, as I have done with our Squarespace website.

I’ve purchased the domain www.beilbys.com.au, to capture the Australian market, as we are a localised, Australian business, and that website is live, and we are using Shopify instead.

I am having great difficulty with Google Search still showing our dead Square Space website as the first link to our business website. 

As you still have control of your old domain and Squarespace site, you can create a series of URL redirects to automatically forward visitors to active pages on your new Shopify site when they click on search results.

By using a "301" redirect you'll be sending a message to search engines that the site/page has been moved permanently to a new URL. 

Once you have determined the page names and how these map to the new site, you can create a list of 301 redirects. For example, to redirect users from the old 'contact us' page to the new one, use this:

/contact-us -> https://beilbys.com.au/pages/contact 301

It is generally recommended that you keep the old site/domain running for up to a year, but this will depend on a number of factors. 

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On 11/25/2022 at 8:15 PM, paul2009 said:

As you still have control of your old domain and Squarespace site, you can create a series of URL redirects to automatically forward visitors to active pages on your new Shopify site when they click on search results.

By using a "301" redirect you'll be sending a message to search engines that the site/page has been moved permanently to a new URL. 

Once you have determined the page names and how these map to the new site, you can create a list of 301 redirects. For example, to redirect users from the old 'contact us' page to the new one, use this:

/contact-us -> https://beilbys.com.au/pages/contact 301

It is generally recommended that you keep the old site/domain running for up to a year, but this will depend on a number of factors. 

 

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Hello,

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. Is there a way to redirect the entire domain to my new website? I’ve tried doing “https://www.beilbys.com -> https://www.beilbys.com.au 301” but it still shows the old page. Do I have to unhide all the old links and do a 301 for every page? Will my new website eventually replace the old square space link that way? Thanks!!

4 hours ago, Beilbys said:

Is there a way to redirect the entire domain to my new website?

Yes (using DNS instead of redirects) but this would not take account of the path and name changes that were necessary when moving to Shopify. 

4 hours ago, Beilbys said:

Do I have to unhide all the old links and do a 301 for every page?

Create a redirect for each page (using wildcards for products) but don’t unhide the old pages.