What is the best way to transfer a sites link juice.

[fraserhannah]

We have been building a new website for one of our clients which he wants it to replace an existing website which will be taken down shortly.

The existing site has a reasonable amount of inbound links and we would like to redirect that link juice to the new website, can anyone tell me what the best way to do this would be.

Thanks

Fraser

[gfiorelli1]

Hi!

there are several options depending on the situation.

1. The new site is essentially redesigned but maintains the URLs structure > the links will still work (I know it is now your situation, but 1 to consider);
2. New site, same domain name, same content, but different URLs structure > 301 the old URLs to the matching content new ones via .htaccess (assuming the site is hosted in an Apache environment);
3. New site, same domain, different content structure and different URLs structure too > 301 the old URLs to the most related content page of the new site
4. New site, new domain name, same content but different URLs structure > as point 2, but in this case you can also use the "Change of Address" option in Google Webmaster Tools (under "Site Configuration"). I think that Bing webmaster central offers a similar option
5. New site, new domain name, different content structure and different URLs structure too > as point 3 but with the GWT option too (and maybe BWC as well).

Hope this helps

[fraserhannah]

Thanks Gianluca,

We fall under number 4.