Please Help!

[orcasislandchamber]

:confused: Please advise....I am the Director for the Orcas Island Chamber of Commerce. We recently changed our domain from orcasisland.org to orcasislandchamber.com because the former Director owns the .org site. There is some confusion on registering our new site and being listed on the roll-up on Google.

When you search for Orcas Island Chamber on Google, the other site is listed, which I do understand. My confusion is.... listed under orcasisland.org is orcasisland.org/orcasislandchamber. Does this mean our former Director has listed her domain as a chamber? orcasisland.org was turned into a Directory so most of the same listing are there, but she is not the Chamber of Commerce and we are very small, we don't know much about these procedures....The former Director does, she owns a local internet company....Can you help?

I have registered our new site in dmoz but it says it takes weeks to be listed. Obviously we're going into tourist season and we need visitors to go to our site, not the other. You can email me directly at kathy @ orcasislandchamber.com.

[Chris Boggs]

I emailed directions for a 301 redirect, which should solve the problem...anyone disagree?

[orcasislandchamber]

Thank you for help! The old site, www.orcasisland.org belongs to the former Director. She is using it as a free directory. So as far as I know, a redirect would not be possible.

[Chris Boggs]

well then the least she can do is very clearly state in large bold letters at the top of the site that visitors can be redirected manually to the new site by clicking on a link. Otherwise, you will have to manually go and ask all the sites that have your inbound links to change them... getting close to memorial day so I'd get on that quick! :)

[orcasislandchamber]

Thanks for your reply. I was scared of this answer....I've registered with all the sites but they all say it takes time.

She is using her site to make money. We are currently paying for a banner link, but that's it, and frankly... it doesn't jump out at you.

Thanks again...
Kathy

[Chris Boggs]

Well Kathy...this is an unfortunate situation for you. The banner ad is at least at the top of the page.

She is capitalizing on many links inbound that say "Orcas Island Chamber of Commerce," which is actually a misleading link. Her traffic is probably mostly made up of people that are trying to visit your site.

I would check your website stats and see if you are getting many referrals from the former site. If so, then no harm done and you can slowly proceed through the list of all the sites that link to you found here: http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=slv1-iy&p=linkdomain%3aorcasisland.org and ask them via email to change the link. Simply explain to them that you changed sites and that the owner of the old domain is still using the site, and that it is NOT the Chamber of Commerce. This should get most people to change the link.

good luck again!

[orcasislandchamber]

Thanks! Congrats on the baby boy! My daughter's Birthday is the 26th of April also, she's 9 this year....my hubby and I can't believe it. They grow so fast! My son just turned 13 in February, daughter 12 in January and I found myself teary eyed last night for that very reason.

The best advice I can give is cherish every move they make :)

Thanks again!
Kathy

[Robert_Charlton]

....Otherwise, you will have to manually go and ask all the sites that have your inbound links to change them...

Kathy - Even if you had used a 301 redirect, it would still be wise to go back and have the links manually changed.

She is using her site to make money. We are currently paying for a banner link, but that's it, and frankly... it doesn't jump out at you.

Sounds like she's being extremely unethical here. I don't know what the politics are here, but you might try to exert some pressure if you can. Chris is absolutely right that, at the least, she owes you a clear message at the top with a free link to your site. Charging you for a banner ad instead is just plain rotten.

PS: Kathy... Just took a look at your site and the original site, and your site apparently has no content. On a quick check, I just found a series of link pages that link to each other in a circle... with the business links all going to the .org site. There's a pretty picture on each of the link pages, but there's nothing else on them except the links to the other pages.

You really need someone who knows what they're doing to overhaul the site. Right now, I think if I were asked to move my link to your site (which I assume is orcasislandchamber.com), I'm not sure I would.

[Chris Boggs]

Thanks! Congrats on the baby boy! My daughter's Birthday is the 26th of April also, she's 9 this year....my hubby and I can't believe it. They grow so fast! My son just turned 13 in February, daughter 12 in January and I found myself teary eyed last night for that very reason.

The best advice I can give is cherish every move they make :)

Thanks again!
Kathy

thanks Kathy for the kind thoughts. I already am finding it harder to leave for work when I see my little boy in the morning.

And I totally agreee with Robert's post that you should try and place some pressure on here to do the right thing. The banner ad should say something to the effect of "This is not the Chamber of Commerce site, which has been moved. Please click here to be redirected to the new Chamber site." It should be more prominent. And get going on the manual changes...try to target the most popular sites first. You should have some old server logs that show you where the most referrals came from...

[Marketing Guy]

Although she technically owns the original domain, wouldn't it have been registered through the course of her business, in which case it may be possible for your organisation to claim it back.

Im by no means a legal expert - maybe others on the forum can offer input on how realistic this idea is - certainly you would be advised to seek out some legal advise.

MG