By Lisa Banks

Whatever the reason for switching your web site to a new domain, unfortunately search engines dont recognize the simple change. So a site with a new URL will be treated as a totally new site and subject to Googles aging delay.

You have a couple options to avoid losing all your hard-earned search engine rankings.

1. Permanent Redirect

You might hear advice to redirect the old domain to the new one with a 301 "permanently moved" response. This has conventionally been applied without losing search engine rankings. But with Googles aging delay, your new domain pages are not going to be recognized right away. The new URL will be subject to a significant aging filter before Google indexes it.

2. Temporary Redirect

A 302 "temporarily moved" response lets the original URL stay in Google's index. So your original site still shows in rankings as if nothing changes. But when someone clicks on your listing in Google, theyll land at your new URL.

So, you can set up the 302-redirect and buy yourself some time to build a linking campaign for your new URL. That way, you can build incoming links to improve its apparent relevance and smoothly transition to the new domain once Googles aging filter releases it.

After six months to a year, the new site should begin to show in rankings, and then you can contact linking partners and request they update their link to you with your new URL. You'll also want to change the temporary redirect to a permanent one.

One word of caution: its a good idea to maintain your previous site until you can be sure that the links around the Internet are showing your new site. Otherwise, youre losing valuable clicks and can potentially damage your brand.

Search Engine Optimization Blog Article...