As part of moving from one Web site to another, our link structure changed massively.  With our previous provider, links were not SEO-friendly.  In fact, the previous provider didn’t allow us any control over meta data at all.  This means that all our pages pretty much looked the same to search engines.

Well, I didn’t want to loose the little what we had built with search engines and other publicity pieces that linked to old pages.  I also didn’t want users to be welcomed to the site with 404s, so I needed to get all of the old site redirected to the new one.

The first step that was necessary for this task was to search which URL’s Google had indexed.  So, I searched site:www.fbcbelton.org.  This showed me 92 pages that Google had spidered.

The problem with our old URLs is that they only included an ID in a query string (ie: www.fbcbelton.org/sites/document.asp?did=1610), a very unfriendly method for people and search engines.  This also creates issues in redirection because an .htaccess redirect can’t redirect document.asp?did=1610 to another location unless the new location understands the query string.  For instance, if I wanted that 1610 to go to http://www.fbcbelton.org/meet-our-staff/, there’s not a simple way to do it with an .htaccess redirect (it is possible with mod_rewrite).

However, I’m accomplishing the redirect in two steps, first redirecting to a Perl script that correlates the old ID to the new page and redirects to the new page.  So, I edited .htaccess with these three rules:

Redirect 301 /sites/calendar.asp http://www.fbcbelton.org/calendar/
Redirect 301 /sites/division.asp http://www.fbcbelton.org/cgi-bin/redirector.cgi
Redirect 301 /sites/document.asp http://www.fbcbelton.org/cgi-bin/redirector.cgi


The first rule says, I don’t care which calendar page you were going to, you’re just getting the current month from now on.  (Sad, I know, but I am working on a calendar solution.)  The second and third take the majority of the URLs and redirect them to a very simple Perl script that devours the query string and runs another 301 redirect to the actual page.  The script is very rude, but the old IDs are hard-coded in as are the new URLs.  (I’m hoping David will comment here and tell me an easier way to do all this, but I’m thinking there may not be one, at least short of using mod_rewrite)

Then I took the short URLs that our old provider gave to us and redirected them as well.  So, before when you entered http://www.fbcbelton.org/memberconnect, their server would send you to /sites/document.asp?did=8291.  Now, the short URL goes to the new location with one line:

Redirect 301 /memberconnect      http://www.fbcbelton.org/member-connect-faq/

When using .htaccess redirects to redirect a page to a new location, always use 301.  301 means that the page is moving permanently.  It is generally accepted that using that type of redirect is the best way to preserve your search engine rankings.

Props to Kevin McCord for his post on why you should subscribe to him:

Let me give you my bottom line:

1. You are too busy to visit my website.
2. You don’t want to be frustrated when I don’t have anything new posted.
3. Subscribing will solve both of those problems.

I like that, a plain and simple reason that you should subscribe to blogs. Today, I took 45 minutes to explain the process of subscribing to RSS feeds to our staff.  I showed them the beautiful tools that Google has to offer, including:

• iGoogle - You make your Google frontpage look like you want it to and include gadgets that you want displayed.
• Google Reader - The easy way to subscribe to feeds and read them
• Google Reader Gadget for Personalized Home - Read all of your feeds without leaving your home page
• Google Blogsearch - Finding blogs of interest just got easier with Blogsearch.  Find all the important children’s ministry blogs, for example.

For the CITRT readers, this is a GREAT topic to train your staff on.  We, as uber-geeks, know how much benefit can be gained from the conversation platform that blogs provide.  Our staff aren’t typically there yet.  However, blogging is becoming more and more mainstream and less of a thing that only the geeks are doing.  Let’s get our children’s ministers, business administrators, bookkeepers, and others involved in a community of others who do the same thing they do.  I bet it’ll make a tremendous impact.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be teaching our staff how to subscribe to RSS feeds, use Google Reader, and start their own blogs. I love this video from the fine folks at CommonCraft.com about what blogs are and why everyone should have one.

I really believe that each minister in every church should, at a minimum, read blogs from others in similar ministries. However, as I’ve seen with the CITRT folks, it helps the whole when each of us write too. We all have something to offer.

So, ministers and ministerial support staff, I encourage you to start getting involved in social media.

Also, check out Aaron Marshall’s post on RSS feeds and Social Bookmarking. This is a great start for your journey.

Matt Singley has a great series going on now about New Media.  One of the things that I have begun advocating to our staff and others is the idea of following bloggers.  I know how much power comes with my (albeit limited) interaction with the CITRT.  While I’ve never been to an in-person round table meeting, I read like crazy.  The interaction I’ve received between other Church IT professionals has enable me to function much better in my job.

So, does your children’s minister follow children’s ministry blogs?  Does your missions pastor read missions blogs?  Why not?  Have them read Matt’s post about Google Reader and start subscribing to blogs.

Today’s tip is simple: Avoid making personal long distance calls that are billed to the church.

I’ve been reading a cool little book called “Deadly Viper Character Assassins.” It was given to us at the Catalyst Conference a few months ago. The whole premise of the book is protecting our character and integrity from the “assassins” out there who are trying to destroy it. One of the “assassins” in the book is The Assassin of Zi Qi Qi Ren (self-deception). One of the things they talk about is how we can begin to justify using office equipment for personal reasons. We may intend to pay the church back for copies or long distance or postage and just forget. We meant to bring back the equipment we borrowed 6 months ago, but it’s still in our living room. Before long, we’ve got this $400 debt that we’ve incurred. Now, I’m no Einstein, but I know that stuff can haunt you. While no one else is keeping tabs, you are.

(This is copied from an internal staff e-mail and is part of a series of posts)