I have a domain (year old) that has some listings in google etc, but they are mostly made up of supplemental results using a poorly optimised osc installation. I have redesigned the site using a better script on the .co.uk and thought about 301'ing the .com to the .co.uk when time comes to launch. Any problems/potential pitfalls with this method? None of the pages will be the same (ie it's not just a direct domain swap)
theoretically by doing a 301 redirect you'll forward all the pr and backlinks to the new domain, practically i don't know (didn't experienced it) but at least you'll keep your visitors in the place you want
I've had problems in the past moving a domain where all the pages were basically the same on old as on new...i had 1000's of pages indexed on GG for the original domain, but only ever <100 on the new and this is >6 months later. I thought perhaps it might be different when all the pages were new (ie different). I guess ideally i would just do the redesigned site on the same domain, but this may not be an option...