.htaccess redirect. Wil it affect rankings and PR?

[lordmenace]

I wanted to purchase a new domain for my site, but my site ranks pretty high for a number of key phrases (I lost count at 10 phrases). It is a PR4 as well. If I use a 301 redirect, will my site lose PR value and will it still rank as high?

I currently have domain1.com (PR4 ranks very high for a few phrases) I want to register a new domain called domain2.com can I 301 redirect domain1.com to domain2.com and have BOTH domain1.com AND domain2.com and the normal rankings and PR? Well maybe not both, but if domain1 doesn't keep the rankings, hopefully it will tranfser its rankings PR to domain2. Will that work?

[jdMorgan]

This question would best be asked in a specific search engine forum or an SEO-related forum, but I'll offer my opinion:

Don't ever change your domain unless a lawsuit forces you to do so.

And if you still can't resist, do a search for "sandbox" here on WebmasterWorld: The age of a domain is an important factor in the "trust" that some search engines give to it, e.g. Google "TrustRank."

On the technical side: If you permanently redirect one domain to another using a 301-Moved Permanently redirect, then the redirected domain is replaced by the domain redirected to. The redirecting domain need no longer contain any "page" content whatsoever; It will disappear completely from the search results over time.

You may expect a short-term ranking loss (possibly severe) while the SEs "rediscover" your relocated content, and possibly a milder longer-term loss, since a few of the sites linking to your old domain may be using link-checking software that reports any redirect as an error.

Don't try to promote two domains with identical content; You'll suffer duplicate-content "penalties" -- actually the result of having the PR/Link-pop split over the two domains. Also, you'll find that the search engines will pick pages from either domain willy-nilly, leaving you with messy search results.

If the domain name change is overwhelmingly compelling, then be prepared to ride out 90 days to a year of reduced rank -- The end result may be worth it, but only you can decide that. Once committed, do not change back, as you will simply re-start the clock. In borderline cases, setting up a completely-new site on the new domain is a better idea. Once it is ranking properly, you can then move content from the old to the new domain -- essentially re-branding it. Once the old site is depleted of content, you can shut it down, and leave only a permanent redirect in place for the few visitors and search engines that come to that domain.

Jim

[lordmenace]

Thank you so much for the reply. very in depth and exactly what I needed. Thanks!