I have a site which is like 1-2 years old, well established, index and ranked for few specific terms. I wish I had used better domain name that time. Will it be smart to change it now (which method?). I don't want to loose any of its SERPs ranking or trust rank it has developed over this period. Suggestions please...
That can be a tricky situation depending on you backlink structure. If you have a lot of deep links, it can be a mess. You would probably lose your rankings for a little while while the redirects get indexed. Going through systematically and changing your backlinks to the new URL is the best way to go about it. You'll just have to decide if the new domain name is worth the considerable effort it will probably take to move it.
It would be safe to put links on old domain to the new one. Deep links, so if you have site: ww.old-domain.com/article/445/money.html put on that site link to ww.newdomain.com/article/445/money.html without deleting content. Slowly you can reduce content writing that the rest of article is on the new site. You can leave a beginning of each article with note that the rest is on ..... You won't be accused of doble content, you won't lose visitors, you won't lose serps until you new domain gets. That's how I would do it (In fact I did in that way and it works )
Can rather slow things down ask yourself if it really worth the work? Best Regards ------------------------------------------------ Paul Easton