Moving to a new domain name and keeping your website (PR) value

Doing it wrong will cost you - doing it right is simple

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All search engines attach value to a URL once it's indexed. The value is connected to the links to that URL, age, "trustability" and some other factors.

When it comes time to change your domain name, you need to be absolutely certain that you take this value with you to the new name. Without it, you'd be starting over.

Technically best: a 301 permanent redirect

The technically best way to transfer value is to use a 301 permanent redirect. If you do not know how to set one up, your web-hoster can probably help you to do it. A 301 permanent redirect tells the search engines that everything has permanently moved and that all content should be found in the new domain name. The old pages should be dropped from the index, keeping only the new ones instead.

There is one problem with this, however.

Sometimes the old pages are dropped way before the new ones are indexed. You're left in the rain without an umbrella - old site out, new site not yet in.

Here is how I solve this issue whenever I need to move domains:

  1. Put the same site online on the new domain name. You're mirroring the contents, but that doesn't matter for the moment.
  2. Promote the new domain name (get links to it, or link to it yourself from your old domain name)
  3. Wait until the new domain is mostly (or completely) indexed in the search engines you're worried about.
  4. Now add the 301-redirect from the old domain name to the new one.

By doing it this way, you will have the new domain indexed before the old one is dropped out. It might take some time for all of the value to get transferred (and for the new domain name to rank high), but at least it's indexed.

After you set up a 301-redirect, you should always check to make sure the status code is actually a 301 (and not a 302). You can do this with a server header checker.

What to do if you can't do a 301 redirect

Some hosters will not allow you to do a 301-redirect from your site. You can get around this by using a "meta-refresh redirect" instead. Most search engines now accept this type of redirect similarly to a 301/302-redirect. To use this redirect, you need to add a line to your "head" section on your pages, eg:

<html>
<head>
....
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://www.newdomain.com/folder/page.htm">
</head>
<body> .... </body>
</html>

This redirect also moves users to the new page, so even if it is not processed by the search engines as fast as a 301-redirect, using it (+ the trick of getting the new content indexed first) you will have the move covered. The meta-refresh redirect works anywhere where you can modify the head-section (eg template-based sites, blogs like blogger / blogspot, etc.).

This can be combined with a targeted "robots-meta-tag". The following tag tells search engines to not store the current page (but to still follow all links, etc). I would add this after your new page has been crawled and indexed (to prevent the old page from being removed before the new page is indexed).

<meta name="robots" value="noarchive,follow">

This tag can be placed anywhere in the head-section, I prefer to place it right after the meta-redirect.

What if you can't even change the head-section?

If you can't add a meta-refresh entry to your pages' head-section then the next best thing to do is to just put up an empty page with a single link to your new page. That link will still get found and will send the search engines to the new page. It won't be classified as a redirect, but since the old page will have almost no indexable content, it will drop out of the rankings sooner or later.

If you can, you could also combine this with the "robots=noarchive" tag from above (but if you can't add a meta-tag, chances are you won't be able to change one either).