If you are re-branding your website for any reason, or you have bought a website you want to move across to a site you own to benefit from a PageRank then you will need to carefully plan the change.
Sometimes it’s just the right time to change your domain name, like if there is a shift in market trends is an example (that is out of most people’s control). You sell Nokia car kits, the sales for them drops through the floor and your URL is swedishcarkits dot com. Now you want to sell hands free related Bluetooth products for the Apple iPhone. You have to change your domain really…
Another reason is re-branding to improve your image. We aren’t in love with our company name but it sticks in the brain. If we wanted to move to a different trading name in the future we could search and develop a new strategy revolving around a new angle. This quite often depends on which domain names are left for registration or up for sale.
When approaching the transfer of one URL to another it’s vital to read and understand the Google Webmaster Help Page For Moving Your Site. This details the exact way in which Google will allow you to carry over rank from one site to the next. The page informs webmasters how to redirect all the pages using 301 permanent re-directs. It also contains robots.txt help, verification details and how to check for errors should they exist.
