Possible to change domain names

[chromate]

I have a site that's ranked well for a popular term, but I have a problem with the affiliate program because the domain contains a trademarked term. Seriously annoying.

Does anyone know if there is an effective way to change domain names and not lose existing rankings? Only think I can think of is a "permanent move" redirect. But I don't want to risk losing the SE traffic I'm getting at the moment.

The whole thing is really annoying. Anyone have any ideas?

[Chris]

No redirect is perfect...

If possible I would do the following:

1. Setup the new domain as a parked domain on the same account.
2. Setup a .htaccess permanent redirect so any traffic coming in to the old domain gets moved to the new.
3. Upload all incoming links & internal links to the new (this includes hard coding the internal links with the domain if you have not yet done so).

You'll probably still get a hiccup, but hopefully it is minimized.

Once the new domain gets listed in search engines make sure the old domain is delisted by adding noindex meta tags (use php to figure out the domain, if domain == xx, add tag).

[Selkirk]

I moved a site with permanent redirects and it got sandboxed for 6 months. It then took another 6 months for the better terms to get back into the top 10. Many are still not up to pre-move levels.

I split another site with permanent redirects and got sandboxed for 6 months again.

If I were doing it again, I would purchase the new domain and put a "welcome to the future home of XXX" page up with a short unique article, then get a few HIGH QUALITY links to the new domain. No forum links, no blog comments, no wiki links, etc. Then I'd wait a few months until the new domain got some PR and then make the move. Ideally, the new domain would be an old purchase with a spam free history.

I'm not saying thats what you should do, because I honestly don't know. I just know there is a risk to your rankings involved with changing domains.

[chromate]

Thanks both of you for your replies.

Yeah, that's what I'm worried about really, the sandbox. This article suggests a 302 redirect until the other site is indexed...

http://www.highrankings.com/issue142.htm#guest

I dunno though. It all seems very risky considering the site is making good money anyway. I don't really want it out of action for 6 months. But I know that if I run the affiliate ads, I'll double the income (because I was running them before, and now they've stopped them due to the trademark).

It's annoying because the real problem lies with the affiliate program managers or their clients. I can understand affiliate managers banning brand name bidding. I can't understand them banning sites from participating in their program if they're naturally ranked in the SERPs anyway. Trademark or no trademark. What's worse, for them to have a trademarked site making sales for them, or to have thousands of people coming to the site each day specifically looking for the brand and to then, on arrival, be directed towards a competitor as a better alternative? It's ridiculous. The site's going to rank well in the SERPs if I run their affiliate program or not (unless they take legal action to shut me down) so why don't they just make some money out of it? Grr. Even if they did shut me down, then some other site's only gonna take my place and traffic.

I'm still trying to talk them round to just letting me play as is. They're not the easiest people to negotiate with though, it has to be said.

[agua]

I did a 301 redirect from my .co.uk domain to my .com with no hassle at all - I didn't fully track the redirect as I had other things happening in my life - but I'd say I was indexed within a month - probably before

Heres my code:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain\.co\.uk [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.domain\.co\.uk [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

[Blue Cat Buxton]

can you not keep your existing site, set up a new site with the affiliate links on that and then redirect sales through the second site either through a straight meta referesh redirect or via a landing page?

[chromate]

can you not keep your existing site, set up a new site with the affiliate links on that and then redirect sales through the second site either through a straight meta referesh redirect or via a landing page?

That's exactly what I did to start with. Couldn't see there would be a problem after carefully looking through the program's terms and conditions. But it resulted in them terminating my affiliate relationship. This is what I'm actually trying to get sorted out now, as I still can't see there should be a problem doing that and it would solve this situation.



I did a 301 redirect from my .co.uk domain to my .com with no hassle at all - I didn't fully track the redirect as I had other things happening in my life - but I'd say I was indexed within a month - probably before

Was the .com a newly registered domain when you did the redirect?

The other thing is, I have hundreds of backlinks for this site and getting all the URLs changed will almost be an impossibility.