I'm the owner of a PR-6 site but I don't like the domain I want to start a complete new website but I want to keep my PR 6 of the old domain. Is there a way for me to do this?
Depends on whether URLs of pages change. To keep the PR exactly as it is you would have to preserve the exact PR flow of your internal pages too. So if all URLs stay the same bar the top level domain, you can achieve this with a fairly simple htaccess mod rewrite. Otherwise you'll have to redirect them manually one by one.
Interesting, topic, Would you have to keep the other domain active for as long as you have the new domain because surely soon as the 301 redirect is removed the inbound link etc etc will no longer be there and the PR will drop
Yes, you leave the old domain 'up' (it's htaccess if you use that 301 method or all its files if you have the redirects in the header) for as long as there exist old links. Which is probably forever.
So you have to host dual sites basically, So what about buying say a high PR domain and setting a 301 up to a new site you set up, would this transfer some of the PR, do u think it would make a big difference, say a PR6 with a 301 to a new PR0 site ? would it be worth the expense, I know PR is useless for SERP ranking but if I wanted to sell link on the new site without waiting for it to get a decent PR Thanks for the help BTW
you can keep the PR with a 301. it'll take a while, but it'll transfer. however, transferring to a new domain is quite likely to land you in the sandbox-- unless of course you're purchasing an old, established domain and transferring it there. unless that's the case, or you're sandboxed as it is, go for it. otherwise I'd be quite wary.
Put this in your .htaccess file in your public_html I had to do the same thing with www.fantasy-pc.com : Replace www.domain.com/ with your new domain name, it takes a bit a 1-3 months maybe to transfer it entirely but this changes your links in search engines and PR, but not directories.
Hmm, this is different. Most likely you will keep the PR4 for the domain your switching too, but this way if you use a 301 then it changes in search engines and your old domain if you keep it up acts as a good quality link. By the way if your changing domains and doing a 301 then it is very useful to not close down the old site but to keep it up for 1-2 months so that everything is transfered and processed on both domains.
I guess I phrased the question wrong, and maybe a 301 redirect is not the right thing to do. I have a PR5 site. I buy a PR4 website/domain along a similar topic as my current PR5 site. I want to redirect all traffic going to the PR4 site to my existing PR5 site. If I use a 301 redirect to do this, does my PR5 site get any additional PR benefit from the PR4 site.
Giving search engine spiders direction with a 301 redirect Scenario You are upgrading your web site and as part of the upgrade, it means moving and renaming particular files. Danger Search engines have indexed your entire site and many pages rank well. By moving and renaming these files, you run the risk of losing a lot of traffic and leaving visitors to your site who follow a search engine link with the dreaded "Error 404 - File not found" Strategy 1 - Custom Error Page You could create a custom error page. The problem with this solution is that: a) You will lose rankings on the next search engine update as the file will appear to be non-existent. It could be some time before the page in it's new location or with a new name reappears. b) Your web site visitors may be frustrated by the fact that they then have to dig through your site to find the desired information. Strategy 2 - Meta Refresh A meta refresh can be implemented in the <head> statement of your source code in blank page with the old file name, which then automatically redirects visitors to the new page. Example: <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" content="0;URL=http://www.new.com/new.htm"> <TITLE>Page has moved</TITLE> </HEAD> Warning: This is a technique often used by spammers to trick search engines and it should be avoided, unless the page is in a section of your site that isn't spidered. What the search engine spammers do is to create a page that is optimized for certain keywords and phrases - it usually has no real content. The page is then picked up by some search engines, but when a visitor clicks on the search engine entry, they are redirected to another site, often unrelated. It's a despicable trick, but thankfully most search engines have filters to detect this. Using this form of SE deception will see a site eventually banned or penalized by major players such as Google. Strategy 2 - 301 Redirect A 301 redirect is the most efficient and spider/visitor friendly strategy around for web sites that are hosted on servers running Apache (check with your hosting service if you aren't sure). It's not that hard to implement and it should preserve your search engine rankings for that particular page. If you *have* to change file names or move pages around, it's the safest option. A 301 redirect is implemented in your .htaccess file. What is a .htaccess file? When a visitor/spider requests a web page via any means, your web server checks for a .htaccess file. The .htaccess file contains specific instructions for certain requests, including security, redirection issues and how to handle certain errors. What is a 301 redirect? The code "301" is interpreted as "moved permanently". After the code, the URL of the missing or renamed page is noted, followed by a space, then followed by the new location or file name How do I implement a 301 redirect? First of all, you'll need to download the .htaccess file in the root directory of where all your web pages are stored. If there is no .htaccess file there, you can create one with Notepad or a similar application. Make sure when you name the file that you remember to put the "." at the beginning of the file name. This file has no tail extension. If there is a .htaccess file already in existence with lines of code present, be very careful not to change any existing line unless you are familiar with the functions of the file. Scroll down past all the existing code, leave a line space, then create a new line that follows this example: redirect 301 /old/old.htm http://www.you.com/new.htm It's as easy as that. Save the file, upload it back into your web and test it out by typing in the old address to the page you've changed. You should be instantly and seamlessly transported to the new location. Notes: Be sure not to add "http://www" to the first part of the statement - just put the path from the top level of your site to the page. Also ensure that you leave a single space between these elements: redirect 301 (the instruction that the page has moved) /old/old.htm (the original folder path and file name) http://www.you.com/new.htm (new path and file name) A more powerful set of directives for manipulating URLs is contained in the Apache mod_rewrite module, especially useful when changing domain names and/or folder names containing large numbers of files. Read our basic tutorial on the apache mod_rewrite module. Redirecting entire sites with 301 The 301 directive is quite powerful. You can redirect not just single files but entire sites, for example when changing domain names e.g. redirect 301 / http://www.you.com/ The first "/" indicates that everything from the top level of the site down should be redirected. As long as you are using the same paths and filenames, then this option is a very simple way to perform site redirection in the situation where you have only changed your domain name. If the site redirection doesn't work for you, check to ensure you have the trailing "/" on the destination URL. You may also like to try some of the other suggestions in our basic tutorial on the apache mod_rewrite module. Canonical issues: www vs. non-www There's been much talk lately of canonical issues and search engines. This is where both the www and non-www versions of your pages are listed in a search engine. This is said to possibly trigger a duplicate content penalty. If this is of concern to you, you may wish to use the following, but be aware that you may suffer a further loss of traffic while the engines sort out what's what. This example is where you wish to direct all non-www traffic to www: Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yoursite.com [NC] RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yoursite.com/$1 [L,R=301] Ensure that all your links to folders always end in a trailing / if there is no filename after that link. Note: test, test and test again after making changes. Test *immediately* after implementing 301 redirects. If you find anything wrong, remove the redirect immediately. User a server header checker to check that you're getting a correct 301 response when using the old URL. The 301 redirect is the safest way to preserve your rankings. On the next spidering, the search engine robot will obey the rule indicated in your .htaccess file. The search engine spider doesn't actually read the .htaccess file, but recognizes the response from the server as valid. In the next update, the old file name and path *should* be dropped and replaced with the new one. Sometimes you may see alternating old/new file names during the transition period, along with some possible fluctuations in rankings as things settle. Don't panic - this is normal and may take a number of weeks before everything is back to normal; but the bottom line is, any change you make has risks - whether it's altering page text, moving/renaming pages or changing domain names. Search engines run by their own rules and can change those rules at any time. If you're changing domain names and using a 301 redirect, you'll need to leave the old domain name and files in place for a few weeks to give the major search engines time to catch on to the changes and don't forget to notify your link partners of the domain name change as soon as possible. Once you deactivate the old domain, any search engine kudos you've built up through those links will be gone. Michael Bloch Taming the Beast http://www.tamingthebeast.net Tutorials, web content, tools and software. 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If you can, just keep your current website and add a homepage link to your new website so that you might get a nice PR5 after the first update. There might be some unexpected matters about 301 redirect.