What do I do with old zen cart directory after upgrade?

[BlackOrchidCouture]

Sorry if this isn't the best place to post this, wasn't sure. Anyway, I used to have my site under /catalog, and when I was upgrading I named the "temporary" upgraded site /store, but just went ahead and pointed my URL to this new folder. I'm now looking into SEO optimization, and am realizing that for one, I probably had some site indexing for the /catalog store, and two, that "duplicate" content is not good. I'm not sure if I'm just supposed to delete the whole /catalog folder or not. And if I do, what if there are old search engine links to the /catalog site? Would a 301 redirect apply here?

Thanks!!

[nigelt74]

1) delete the old Catalog folder
2) Put a 301 redirect in, to redirect all traffic that is going to the catalog folder to the store folder.

[BlackOrchidCouture]

1) delete the old Catalog folder
2) Put a 301 redirect in, to redirect all traffic that is going to the catalog folder to the store folder.

Ok, that's what I was thinking would be correct. Now would I put the 301 redirect in the /store folder or the public_html folder?

Thank you for answering so quickly!

[nigelt74]

Ok, that's what I was thinking would be correct. Now would I put the 301 redirect in the /store folder or the public_html folder?

Thank you for answering so quickly!

in the root folder normally, although you could put it in the /catalog folder as that is the location you want to redirect from,

there would be no point putting it in the /store folder

[DrByte]

I'm gonna sound dogmatic here, but if you follow the posted upgrade instructions then you'd never need to repoint your domain or rename folders at all, since your upgrade would take place in the same directory by the time you're done ... because the temporary directory is only used for *testing*, and then the upgrade is redone to the live store when your testing is done. Naturally the upgrade goes very quickly when you've already got everything ready to go after testing.

[BlackOrchidCouture]

Yes, I probably should have just stuck with the /catalog folder and put all the upgraded files in there, but I ended up liking the folder named /store, so just decided to stick with that one. In hindsight it might not have been the right thing to do, but it's what I did, so now want to fix it the best way I can....

[BlackOrchidCouture]

Ok, all my redirects are working except one, which is the most important, my basic url is not redirecting to the /store folder. For now I made a simple landing page with a link to my store.

Before it was redirecting correctly because I have the domain where it is hosted redirecting to the /store folder, but now that I've added the 301 redirect it seems to have cancelled that out or something.

So my new question is, should I not be using the hosted domain redirect at the same time as the .htaccess 301 redirect? Is one way preferable over the other in terms of SEO? Should I cancel the redirect through my hosting company?

Thanks!

[DrByte]

So my new question is, should I not be using the hosted domain redirect at the same time as the .htaccess 301 redirect?

Please explain exactly what *you* mean by "hosted domain redirect" and also exactly what you've got for your ".htaccess 301 redirect".

[BlackOrchidCouture]

Please explain exactly what *you* mean by "hosted domain redirect" and also exactly what you've got for your ".htaccess 301 redirect".

Ok, up until now, through the site that I bought my domain name from I've had www.mysite.com redirecting to www.mysite.com/store, and ALSO, the hosting company where I have my whole site hosted (which is different from where I got my domain name), I've redirected my domain in the same way. This was working until I added the 301 redirect today. Now, mysite.com, mysite.com/catalog, and www.mysite.com/catalog are all redirecting correctly to www.mysite.com/store, but www.mysite.com is NOT redirecting.

Here is what I put in the public_html folder:

     RewriteEngine On
  RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^mysite.com$
  RewriteRule ^$ http://www.mysite.com/store$1 [L,R=301]
  
    RewriteEngine On
  RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.mysite.com$ [NC]
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mysite.com/store$1 [L,R=301]

and here is what I put in the /catalog folder, it's working correctly:

 RewriteEngine On
  RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^mysite.com/catalog$
  RewriteRule ^$ http://www.mysite.com/store$1 [L,R=301]
  
    RewriteEngine On
  RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.mysite.com/catalog$ [NC]
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mysite/store$1 [L,R=301]

I also added this to the /store .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On 
 RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.mysite.com$ [NC] 
 RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mysite.com/store$1 [L,R=301]

Maybe it's too much redirecting?

Thank you!!

[DrByte]

I'm still not clear.

up until now, through the site that I bought my domain name from I've had www.mysite.com redirecting to www.mysite.com/store

You should NOT be using any "redirection" or "forwarding" at your domain registrar.

and ALSO, the hosting company where I have my whole site hosted (which is different from where I got my domain name), I've redirected my domain in the same way.

If you mean you've set your domain to point to public_html/store then I guess I kinda understand, but you're describing it oddly, and if indeed you've got the webroot pointed to something other than public_html then either you're using inappropriate forwarding to do it, or all this redirecting is entirely unnecessary in the first place.

Maybe it's too much redirecting?

Seems like it.