I have 4 existing websites all hosted on the same server, each with a unique domain name. I have built a webflow site that will act as a new single landing page for all 4 sites, so when a visitor goes to any one of the 4 domains, they will all reach the new webflow site.
The plan is to eventually transition all old content from each to site to the new webflow site but in the meantime, I need to keep the old sites live so all the existing content is still available on the current hosting.
I’m a little unsure on the best way to achieve this. This is a process i had in mind:
Add all 4 domains to webflow as custom domains and change DNS to point to webflow hosting for each.
In the domain name’s DNS control panels, create new subdomains for each of the 4 sites (eg. site.domain1.com, site.domain2.com etc) and point them to the existing, external non-webflow hosting (eg. site.domain1.com > external-IP.
Use webflow 301 redirects to direct all links to pages which are not yet hosted in webflow to the externally hosted subdomains (eg. domain1.com/events > site.domain1.com/events).
Is it the best way to migrate a site to webflow while keeping some of the site on webflow and some of it hosted outside of webflow and maintain old link juice?
So you have 4 websites that you don’t need anymore? You want all 4 domains to point to 1 webflow website? I’m not really following but no matter what, i would not let webflow handle all the forwarding since they are not a domain registrar. That kind of stuff should be done with your registrar using either a records or cnames.
Hi @DFink, I currently have 4 separate websites for different 4 bars and restaurants, each with their own unique domain. I’ve created a new website in webflow that will act as the new landing page for all 4 sites – so the 4 different URLs will now all point to the one webflow site.
The trouble is, I need to keep most of the old site content live while going through the slow transition moving it all to webflow – so I would have some content in webflow and some content on an external server and I was wondering which is the best way to set it all up to allow this while keeping all the established SEO work that has been done.
I realise webflow is not a domain registrar, but I thought the webflow 301 redirect feature was for this sort of thing?
I’d personally set the 4 domains to subdomain and upload copies of the site there. That way you have a copy on the regular domain and subdomain. Then make the switch where the domain points to Webflow and Webflow points to the subdomain.
Hi @cyberdave, I’ve just back on to this to try it and the first stumbling block is that it seems CNAME records can’t point to IP addresses!
@DFink, thanks for you reply. Let me see if I understand – do you mean:
In the DNS settings, add 4 x new A record subdomains: site.domain1.com, site.domain2.com etc. and point them to the current external hosted IP adddress (no need to copy if they already there?)
Point the main domains (domain1.com, domain2.com etc) to webflow (usual A records and CNAME setup)
Use webflow’s 301 redirect to point all links not yet in webflow to the subdomain
Hi @matt50, yeah you are right, sorry about that. You might try to setup a separate domain on the old server, and then setup a cname to that domain. Sorry for any confusion.
@cyberdave No worries, it was news to me to be honest!
One of the problems I have is that a previous company built the existing sites and I wanted to try and move to webflow without having to get access to their server. They built the existing sites using Expression Engine which I have no real experience with so I didn’t want to get into any potentially complicated setup if I could avoid it. I do have access to the domains and was hoping I could get it all done with DNS and webflow alone.
Hi @matt50, I hear you on this for sure. I think the goal is now, to make that transition to Webflow as one-click as possible. You have my full support and I will raise this to the dev team. Let’s make this process easier
I am not sure about the DNS a record subdomains. I usually set this up in the cpanel of bluehost or godaddy to simply create subdomains. Then I can forward those to webflow. But the rest seems right. At least that seems to be the simplest way to me.
