How to transfer an existing domain name and keep your rankings If you have a web site that needs a new domain name due to rebranding or a change in company name, and you don't want to loose your current rankings in the search engines then this article is for you.
Search engines don't recognize that your domain name has changed and they see a new domain name as a new domain which is subject to their aging delay which can put your rankings on hold for a period of 6 to 18 months depending. If you've worked hard to get your current web site traffic and rankings then of course you don't want to loose that.
In order to tell the search engines that your web site has moved you have 2 choices, you can do a 302 redirect "temporarily moved" or a 301 redirect "permanently moved". Both of these are done at the server level. A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect that tells the search engines that you are no longer using the old domain and you want to transfer everything over to the new one. If you do this however the new site does not assume the same positioning as the old site. The pages are subject to the aging filter. The best way to keep your current rankings is to do a 302 redirect. What will now happen is your old domain will remain in the index and will keep it's position as if it still existed, but the viewers will see the new domain. By doing this you can retain your old rankings until your new domain is no longer being held due to the aging delay.
It will be important to have any linking partners update their links to your new domain. This will help establish a linking campaign for your new domain which is important to your linking strategy so your new domain gains popularity. Once you notice the new domain showing up in the search engines in 6 to 18 months then you can change your 302 redirect to a 301 redirect. Don't remove the old pages until all links on the web have been updated to reflect your new domain name.
Good Luck
Transferring an Existing Domain Name - To learn more about this author, visit Chris Padavick's Website.
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Chris Padavick
(Visit Chris's Website)
My name is Chris Padavick and I am the
President of Hieroweb Interactive.
Hieroweb Interactive has been online since
1992 and we develop, design, maintain and
market web sites on the World Wide Web. We
combine solid graphic arts design with
excellent web design principles to achieve
an eye appealing design. Other services
that we provide are logo design, e
commerce design, 3D animation, application
design, flash design, search engine
optimization, email blast design, web
hosting and marketing. We develop a brand
from the ground up starting with the
design of a custom logo, stationary,
advertising pieces and web site design.
View our clients list at:
www.hiero.com/clients.html and see
some of our award winning designs.
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