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How to Change Your Domain Name and Not Lose Your Search Engine Ranking

Well, that might be overstating it.

There are a number of reasons why you might have to change your domain name: copyright suit, company merger or buyout, or a business name change.

Whatever the reason, when you change your domain name (your url) you often give up all the trust you’ve built up at the search engines, crushing your search engine rankings and greatly diminishing the traffic SE’s provide, at least in the short run.

This article, Switching to a New Domain Without Losing Your Google Rankings, explains why a "temporarily moved" 302 redirect may be more search engine friendly than a "permanently moved" 301 redirect.

The logic is sound, although I haven’t had a chance to try it out personally yet.

Hopefully you’ll never be forced to change your company URL, but if you do, I’d follow the directions here.

Rich Brooks
Temporarily Moved (302)

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  • http://www.afterthelaunch.com Shama Hyder

    Rich,

    This is something I have heard too, but never tried. SEO-wise though it makes sense.

  • http://www.afterthelaunch.com Shama Hyder

    Rich,

    This is something I have heard too, but never tried. SEO-wise though it makes sense.

  • http://www.titlesuccess.com Shane Kane – TitleSuccess.com

    I've changed my domain name in the past and it set me back big time in the search engines. It's like starting from scratch. I'll have to keep this tip in mind for the future.

  • http://www.titlesuccess.com Shane Kane – TitleSuccess.com

    I've changed my domain name in the past and it set me back big time in the search engines. It's like starting from scratch. I'll have to keep this tip in mind for the future.

  • http://www.hallme.com/blog Fred

    Shane — I sympathize with your pain. Lots of people underestimate how big a move it is to change URLs… Bigger business consequences than moving from a REAL address!

    Rich, thanks for pointing out a rather unconventional take on the common "301 is the way to go" strategy. I'd forewarn most people, however, that the article assumes a high level of technical ability, and doesn't caution about the dangers of fudging the redirect process.

    Assumed in the article, but not always straightforward, is the ability to have individual page names redirect to the exact page name on the new server, rather than generically to the new domain (e.g. http://www.old.com/sweater.php goes to http://www.new.com/sweater.php and NOT http://www.new.com).

    htaccess, PHP, or ASP redirect? Unless you know the difference between all of these, it's NOT your place to making the choice between 302 and 301 (or.. *shiver* META-REFRESH).

    Thanks again,
    Fred

    SEO Vision Blog
    SEO Audio Podcast
    http://www.hallme.com/blog
    http://www.hallme.com/blog/category/seo-audio/

  • http://www.hallme.com/blog Fred

    Shane — I sympathize with your pain. Lots of people underestimate how big a move it is to change URLs… Bigger business consequences than moving from a REAL address!

    Rich, thanks for pointing out a rather unconventional take on the common "301 is the way to go" strategy. I'd forewarn most people, however, that the article assumes a high level of technical ability, and doesn't caution about the dangers of fudging the redirect process.

    Assumed in the article, but not always straightforward, is the ability to have individual page names redirect to the exact page name on the new server, rather than generically to the new domain (e.g. http://www.old.com/sweater.php goes to http://www.new.com/sweater.php and NOT http://www.new.com).

    htaccess, PHP, or ASP redirect? Unless you know the difference between all of these, it's NOT your place to making the choice between 302 and 301 (or.. *shiver* META-REFRESH).

    Thanks again,
    Fred

    SEO Vision Blog
    SEO Audio Podcast
    http://www.hallme.com/blog
    http://www.hallme.com/blog/category/seo-audio/

Related posts:

  1. Change Your Domain Name Without Hurting Your Search Engine Rank
  2. Should You Change URLs for Search Engine Optimization?
  3. 301 Redirects: How to Keep Your Search Engine Ranking During a Redesign
  4. Does Your Domain Name Help with Search Engine Visibility?
  5. 301 Redirects: The Search Engine Friendly Way of Moving Your Web Pages or Your Whole Site

This entry was posted on Monday, January 7th, 2008 at 8:46 am and is filed under Search Engine Marketing, Web Design & Development, Web Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.