Changing site url, need advice

I am planning to change my site url from xyz.com to abc.com. They both reside on the same server. The hosting company advice me to change the domain account and park xyz.com on top of abc.com.

Is this the best option of doing it so that I don't lose my PR and search engine still able to update their index?

 

The best that you can do is to implement a 301 Redirect from your old domain to your new domain.

 

IMO I think it will be difficult to keep same PR. park, and use permanent redirect would be ok, can't expect same PR.

 

How to park and use permanent redirect at the same time?

The forum database I have in the old domain is quite large. It would be a little difficult to move it. I am not sure the hosting company will do it for me. They are advicing me to change account and park which I think is easier since no transfer of files is require. Is it a wise advice in term of seo?

 

As long as the old urls 301 redirect to the new urls then you will be fine in the search engines.

 

when you park, that mean everything on the same server and can access through both domain name. Usually it does like that easy with Cpanel

<?php
if ($_HTTP_HOST=="www.abc.com" || $_HTTP_HOST=="abc.com"){
        header ('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
	header("Location: http://www.xyz.com" . $_REQUEST_URI);
}
?>

PHP:

*not guarantee above code, you need to test.


also you can do in .htaccess file

 

So I add the php code in .htaccess on the old domain?

Thanks for the code.

 

oh no above is php code to add to your php script.

.htaccess have to do the different way, but powerful.

read below article about mod_rewrite and you will understand more.

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=23044

 

301 redirects work perfectly, i did that and managed to maintain page rank (it slipped for one month but picked up following).