Is there another way to redirect the index page in PHP without using the header() function.
I want to redirect but without upsetting any bots that are indexing the current site.

I don't want to mess around with .htaccess

.htaccess really doesn't constitute "messing around." I mean, what is so difficult about...

As for other methods using PHP, the only thing that comes to mind other than header() (which doesn't cause SE's heartburn, BTW) is to 'echo' a Javascript or Meta "refresh" (which is less reliable, and may cause problems with search engines).

P.S. Ignore the URL tags in the code block above. It is automatically added by the forum software (an anti-spam feature with an undesired side-effect?).

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I tried your suggestion but discovered that .htaccess is not allowed on my budget server.

Anyway I am moving so no matter.

Googlebot did not like the header() function and dropped my index page from a different site.

I do have another site using a forwarded + masked address by godaddy.com and googlebot index that and gave it a 4 on page rank.
The page it points to is a free page on geocities!!!! Go figure.

Thanks for reply.

What I used once was including the file..

but that might give problems with links if you don't have them setup correctly

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Hi thanks for reminding me of the simplest option.

I could include a clone of my new index but with altered links to new site or just leave the clone as the index page of the old site.

This would help, the pages that were indexed by google bot were all forwarded at my registrars server and would have been lost compeltely.

Can any one else recommend how long to leave the old site running to ensure a smooth transition and not to loose trafffic.

For as long as you can, when I moved this site from www.desilva.biz/forum/ to www.gidforums.com December 15th, 2003, I put in place the re-directs and they're still there and Yahoo/Slurp is STILL fetching some of these pages today!

You have no worries with Googlebot, she's super-fast.

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