Migrate to new host

[kmorgen]

I have this challenge which have been bugging me for a while:

 

Currently have:

www.chill-innovation.com master site + shop.chill-innovation.com (Presta 1.5.6.0)

 

I consider to drop the fairly outdated main site and just use the subdomain prestashop (with new suited theme) as a main site in the future. In this process I will move to a new host.

 

So, how should I perform this migration?

 

- The new host have cPanel, and 1-click Softaculous installer, so I prefer to use this to make a clean Presta 1.5.6 install, and then just juse the "old" database. Would this work?
(Then I could take advantage of the Softaculous update/backup functions in the future, and also get a fresh install, since a lot seem messed by going from 1.4 to 1.5 with the PS 1-click installer earlier)

 

- Challenge might be that that shop should no longer be on the sub-domain, but become master (however might still prefer to have it actually installed in a subfolder /shop or /prestashop etc.)

 

- Also, since merging the 2 sites into 1, I will have a lot of 301 redirects to process (both from current master site, but also from current shop on sub-domain to master). Since presta does not really have good default support for redirects and it is not recommended to do this in .htaccess (since often owerwritten), I consider to do this server side in cPanel. Would this work?

 

- If so, I would probably have to create the old shop. subdomain at the new host cPanel, in order to make redirects from old shop urls, right? (in this case cPanel will create a /shop folder, so then cannot really install/move the current shop to the same folder, which is also called /shop now  ) 

 

- In terms of SEO is it good or bad to merge the 2 sites into one PS site?
I know Google see them as two sites now, since the shop is on a sub-domain, so I really never get the link-juice from the master site, which have been live for many years. 

 

Hope some have some inputs for the various challenges 

Edited October 19, 2013 by kmorgen (see edit history)

[benjamin utterback]

Using a fresh 1.5.6 installation with what version database 1.4 or 1.5?

 

The way you shop is set up now I personally do not think is not bad. You have one website that showcases your products and a link to your shop. 

 

I think you should move your shop.chilli to a subdomain of your master site. 

 

That's my recommendation. You would need to change the links of all your products to the new subdomain, which should not take long.