Moving to a new domain

[CommT]

Hi,

We are about to rebrand.

This means we need to move all of our content on to a new domain. I want to make sure this process is as smooth as possible and we don't lose too much by way of rankings.

I have read this page: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/best-practices-when-moving-your-site.html and plan on following the instructions to the letter, but was wondering if anyone had any additional tips? Also, the article linked above is OLD. From 2008, is there anything'new' that I should know?

Thank you (in advance) for any help you can offer, it is much appreciated!

Best wishes,

Amelia

EDIT: I forgot quite a big element when first posting this question!

We are merging two existing websites into the new URL. The two sites are for two different products we offer, but we'll now be offering both products under the same URL.

[Devanur-Rafi]

Hi Amelia, while the link you mentioned covers it all, here you go for more insights while moving a domain:

http://moz.com/webinars/domain-migrations-lessons-from-the-moz-transition

and

http://moz.com/blog/domain-migration-lessons

Hope they help.

Best,

Devanur Rafi

[CommT]

Thank you Devanur

[kirube]

Hi Amelia -

One important thing here is the 301 forwarding. You should do this in two steps -

1. On your web server for all the old URL (for the domain as a whole), please do a 301 forwarding of all old URLs to your new ones.

It's simpler if your URL structure is going to remain the same, because that ensure all credits for a given page from old domain goes to the same page on the new domain.

Here is a simple code for apache to pass a given URL on old domain to the new URL on the new domain

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.old_domain.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.new_domain.com$1 [L,R=301]

2. Go to google webmaster and do a 301 forwarding from old domain to new.

Regards,

K

[CommT]

Thank you K. - Very useful and informative.

[Everett]

Hello Amelia,

Here's another Google piece about how to move to a new domain for rebranding:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/83105?hl=en

Also don't forget to use the change of address form in Google Webmaster Tools, as discussed here.

You can use an HTTP status code checker to make sure the response codes are correct (e.g. 301 instead of 302).

[CommT]

Hi Everett,

Thank you - this is great info.

Have a great day

Amelia