Updating Itunes feed to redirect to new Wordpress site URL

[rickgernhardt]

I recently migrated our church website from rickgernhardt.com to covenant-tlh.org.  I used rickgernhardt.com to mock up the site and then migrated the wordpress files over to covenant-tlh.org so that there would be no down time on the church site.

I used Powerpress to post our church podcasts on our website.  I also used Powerpress to submit a new podcast to Itunes (find it at "rickgernhardt").  It worked perfectly to post the podcasts on the rickgernhardt.com site and also worked perfectly to get the itunes podcast up and running.

However, once I migrated the site from rickgernhardt.com to covenant-tlh.org my podcasts are no longer being updated on Itunes, although we are able to post them to the covenant-tlh.org site.  I am assuming we are having this problem because when the Itunes podcast was set up it was set up under the rickgernhardt.com url. 

How can I instruct Itunes to look to the covenant-tlh.org site for the podcast feed instead of the rickgernhardt.com url for the feed.  I have already inserted the new podcast feed --  http://covenant-tlh.org/feed/ --  into Powerpress under the "New Itunes URL feed" field postion at rickgernhardt.com.   I have also inserted the new podcast feed --  http://covenant-tlh.org/feed/ --  into Powerpress under the "New Itunes URL feed" field position at covenant-tlh.org.

Is that all I need to do and then just wait 2-3 weeks for Itunes to verify.  Or is Itunes only looking at the feed coming from rickgernhardt.com and so unable to see the "new Itunes URL feed" command at the covenant-tlh.org site.

The podcast feed for covenant-tlh.org is:    http://covenant-tlh.org/feed/
The podcast feed for rickgernhardt.com is :  http://rickgernhardt.com/feed/
The iTunes URL is: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/covenant-church/id428378647

All help would be appreciated.  I am at the end of my web skill set on this one.

Thanks,

Rick

[mgdell]

What you need to do is a 301 redirect at your old website.

First, you need to be able to edit your .htaccess file located in the root folder of your old/previous WordPress blog. You need to put the redirect on the old server so it redirects to the new one. If you do not know how to edit the .htaccess file on your server, then the method described here will not work for you.

Once you have your .htaccess file open, create a new line below the line starting with "RewriteBase /"


...
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
PLACE NEW LINE HERE
...


On this new line, add a rewrite rule like the one below.

RewriteRule ^feed/podcast http://www.example.com/feed/podcast/ [R=301,L]

Quick explanation, RewriteRule first parameter ^feed/podcast will match oldsite.example.com/feed/podcast. The ^ character means that the match must start at the beginning of the path portion of the URL request, so oldsite.example.com/blogpost/feed/podcast will not match the rule. The second parameter is the complete URL to the new web address. The last parameter, [R=301,L] specifies the redirect method (R=301) and that if this rule is interpreted, it is the last (L) rule and the rest of the rules in the .htaccess file do not need to be processed.

-Mike