Canonicals & 301 Redirects to new Domain

[BVREID]

We will be changing our domain name soon and I want to make sure I'm not painting myself into a corner.  Of course, I want to transfer as much link equity as possible.

Question #1: Do I need to define a canonical from the old domain to the new domain?

Question #2: Do I also need to put 301s in place on the pages with link equity, or is there a way to apply 301s across the entire site on all pages?

Any input would be appreciated greatly!

Thanks!

[MonicaOConnor]

You will want to do the 301 redirect. That is the best way to address a domain name change. You would use a canonical tag if you were keeping both sites live, which isn't best practice. The canonical tag is not necessary when you use the 301 redirect. You will use the canonical tag to set the correct version of your URL, for example, if your set version is abcde.com and not www.abcde.com you will add a canonical tag to the page for abcde.com.