Moving a site to a new domain name

[Selkirk]

I'm considering buying an existing site.

My intent is to move the content to a better domain name and 301 the old domain to the new one.

I figure google trust is probably going to reset when the domain ownership changes anyway, so why not use the opportunity to rename?

Any advice on managing the transition?

[Chris]

I'm considering buying an existing site.

My intent is to move the content to a better domain name and 301 the old domain to the new one.

I figure google trust is probably going to reset when the domain ownership changes anyway, so why not use the opportunity to rename?

Any advice on managing the transition?

Google doesn't reset on ownership changes, only on domain expirations. Otherwise you'd lose it every time you updated whois data (Such as for business name and address changes).

But you can certainly move it. Use the redirects, make sure any hardcoded internal links are fixed, and contact as many of your external linkers as possible to get them to update.

I would expect a traffic hit during the transition.

[Selkirk]

Google doesn't reset on ownership changes, only on domain expirations. Otherwise you'd lose it every time you updated whois data (Such as for business name and address changes).

Oh that makes sense. Good to know. Makes the decision harder tho.