I have a domain name (not the one in the signature) which is well optimised, plenty of links pointing to is and receives a good level of traffic. The problem is I don't like this domain name and would like to change it. Obviously, the new domain name is going to take some time to get optimised to the same level, and point new links to it aswell as get it listed in Google etc. I've heard someone mention redirects from the old domain to the new one; 1) Which is the best redirect to use? 2) Would you risk using a re-direct? 3) Is it best to optimise the new domain and forget about a redirect? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Darren
a 301 redirect would be the best white hat way to redirect, some black hat methods might be more effective but im not posting them, PM me if you want more info. what I would do is optimise the new domain, grey hat redirect like floating layer with site moved or new site over the old page and then when the new domain is looking good switch to a 301 redirect. PS dont use meta redirect EVER.
Why not? It works fine, as long as you are careful to allow a reasonable length of time for the original page to display warning of the redirect. In fact in some cases it even works better, because it alerts visitors to the fact that the page/site has moved so they can update bookmarks: <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT="10; URL=http://www.yourdomain.com/newpage.html"> <TITLE>This page has moved</TITLE> </head> <BODY> <P>This Page Has Moved<BR> Please update your bookmarks to <A href="http://www.yourdomain.com/newpage.html"> http://www.yourdomain.com/newpage.html</A> </p> </body> </html> Code (markup): This redirects your visitors to the new site after 10 seconds. I would recommend that you don't set it to less than 10. I have used this previously on an IIS server as well as on Apache servers -- never had a problem with search engines.
Ok this is true but under 10 seconds and its supposed to trip some sort of google penalty and since google recommends 301 redirects I think they are better. but just in case can you give me some advice on how a search engine treats a mets refresh 10 sec so?
If you do it the way I instructed above, the page contains the new URL; spiders follow that URL to the new location; the new URL is indexed. The problem with 301 redirects is: 1. not all webmasters will have access to it (may not be able to create htaccess files or may not be permitted by the host to implement it) 2. Yahoo was having problems with 301 redirects -- I don't think they are entirely resolved yet
yes but will the new site be given the same weight as the old site in the serps because of that? I dont think so as far as I am aware. 301 however normally will, after a short drop in serps you should go back up again.
If it's a domain name change rather than just a page name change, it may take longer. But either way, the old page (now with the redirect) will continue to have the same ranking for a while. And no matter what redirect method you use, it's advisable to track down backlinks and ask them to update their URLs.