Question for you SEO Experts

I have a question for you SEO experts - What happens when I redirect a domain that is coming up #1 in google? ie. Will google continue to list results that are redirects?

I'll illustrate with an example:

I own city-niche.com (say toronto-hotel.com). It is has been backlinked so that it comes up in google#1 for keyphrases such as "Toronto Hotel".

I plan to sell the domain to one of the "hotels" in the city. Once I sell them the domain, should I tell them to just redirect the domain to their current website?

(I don't own toronto-hotel.com, or come up in google#1 for "toronto hotels", just giving an example)

 

It is subjective, and depends on other factors, but it CAN work this way.

I had a site called (example) liveconcert.com and was ranking #1 for live concert, I later merged the liveconcert.com with another website, and now the liveconcert.com is in a liveconcert directory of another website. (anotherwebsite.com/liveconcert/) I still rank #1 for live concert after the "merge" but G does not list the result with liveconcert.com URL, they changed the URL to anotherwebsite.com/liveconcert/. But it is still number 1 position for the keyword.

 

correct exactly what i would have said - they only list one domain depending on which ones more powerful so if the one your redirecting they dont mind people seeing them as that domain its fine

 

that wont work.
google ranks domains base on the relevance of its content/backlink. If you take away that relevance google will throw that domain out of the first position.
By selling a domain you are delivering whatever traffic it has to the buyer AT TRANSFER TIME.
Whatever way the buyer takes good advantage off that traffic, that's up to him/her.

 

there is a mention in Webmaster Tools about re-directs. I have MOD re-writes on my site and there's one page (URL in sitemap) in particular that it troubles to index because apparently it has too many re-directs (there are no re-directs...). Not sure how this will impact your listing, but it's worth keeping in mind that anything Google flags as a warning/error may well be knocked down.

 

Thanks guys,

So if I understand correctly, I should probably advise the buyer to use a 301 redirect from the domain they are purchasing from me to their current domain. This way they will still be able to reap the benefits of the SERP's that domain they are purchasing has?

Basically what I am selling here is the SERP results my domain is getting, and want the buyer to continue to get those results after they purchase from me.

 

Do a 301. But, of course it still depends on lots of factors.

 

But using his example he's not taking away the relevance. If he sells Toronto-hotel.com to a Toronto hotel, everything is still 100% relevant.


In answer to the original question, it all depends on the site. Lets say for example your site is a list of hotels in Toronto, rating them all out of 10. Then it would make sense to keep your site as a stand alone site, but with their hotel(s) now ranked as easy winners in your list.

 

301 redirect is a permanent transfer. you do that to tell the search engine that the content on that page is being put in another URL. and SERP is related to URL, content and backlink. so if you redirect URL to an existing site without transferring the content I don't think the ranking would be transfered overtime.