Changed forum URL

[nkblaze]

I changed my forum url from domain.com to domain.com/forums.
Today I logged into my google webmaster panel and saw that there were 4000+ Not found pages due me changing my forum URL. What I did was generate a set of SiteMap and submitted it. Will that fix the problem?

[Michael Biddle]

It will not redirect all of the traffic that is already indexed. What is in your root now that you moved the forum directory?

[nkblaze]

A folder with images
/forums directory and index.php which is the vbadvance one.

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

Hello,

You should create this .htaccess in domain root:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ http://www.domain.com/forums/$1 [L,QSA]

[TheComputerGuy]

is this type of move discouraged if you site has been up for 5+ years?

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

I would not recommend to change location for an established site unless it's really needed.