This is a follow up on the "Moving content and search engines" post [1], related to the Google's page rank issue with the "How to create a dynamic signature" guide [2]. When I wrote that post [1], links to the guide [2] started to appear at page 6, so I was wondering how effective the mod_rewrite trick to generate an HTTP 301 error (redirect permanent) was going to be...

Let's see how many time it takes to get rid of the old references.

Well, just checked again and I was kindly surprised. When searching at Google for dynamic+signatures, the guide [2] was found on the first page! In fact, it was the first link! :-)

So... what's interesting with this experience?

I was kind of innocent when I wrote the dynamic signatures guide, as a response of a forum question. I could never imagine the success of this guide. I'm sure it is one of the most important factors contributing to this site's page rank. Nothing spectacular, but given that the community activity here is not very high, I believe I can feel quite happy with it.

If you tried to search for "dynamic signatures" (I guess this is a competitive enough combination of words) at Google, Yahoo! or MSN, you ended up finding that little guide, close to the top of the list. At this time, it seems Yahoo! and MSN have noticed the change, however, this is not the case with Google.

I'm very happy to think it has been of some help for one or two out there. However, I moved the guide here from my old website. The URL (and even the domain) is now different. How could I tell Google about this change?

Actually, I have a little problem with this guide that I'm planning to solve using a mod_rewrite trick ...

Update: Yep, it looks like it worked!