Switch of domain

[guez]

I recently changed my domain name for branding reasons. The site was a PR5 and getting good ranking in search engines.
First month, PR down to 0 and no more search engine traffic. Domain name not blacklisted because never registered before. Can I expert a come back in the search engine this coming month or is it going to take longer?

Thanks

[PatrickDeese]

Did you 301 the old domain name to the new one?

Did you request that link partners change the URL they link to?

Google ToolBar PR does not update at very frequently so even if you have new links, you may show PR 0 for many months.

[guez]

yes, I 301 the old domain name
I also contacted all previous links so they change to my new address...
I am just concerned on how long it's going to take to update my PR...

[PatrickDeese]

> I am just concerned on how long it's going to take to update my PR...

Your PR is updated. Just because that toolbar doesn't show it, doesn't mean that Google doesn't know.

Just keep developing your site and continue to get inbound links.

[snsh]

I've found that 301 is not the ideal way to change domains.
Should first do 302, and later switch to 301.

Until about a month ago, our company was mycompanyinc.com.
Last month successfully grabbed an expired domain that was mycompany.com.
Immediately set up a 301 redirect from old to new domain.

Two weeks later, old domain disappears from google,
and new domain is still not listed on google. Ouch!
Regret not first doing 302 redirect for a couple months,
then switching to 301 redirect after new site is well indexed.

[tedster]

The issue with 302 that I see is that content for the new URLs may get indexed, but usually it still shows under the old domain - and that makes a kind of sense, sort of anyway, when you think of 302 as "temporary".

However, when you are making a permanent move, the new domain name is not showing with a 302, even though the content is taken from the new resource. The handling of 302 redirects that go to a different domain is a very, very sore spot for many webmasters because they have had their ranking pages "stolen" by a domain name they do not own, due to this handling of cross-domain 302 redirects.

To see the new domain name in the SERPs (and not just its content) it still takes a 301 redirect in my experince, and that can mean a wait with the way new domains are currently handled. I've had better results with a page by page meta-refresh, but that has very real limitations on large websites.

The biggest hope is that the SEs will sort all this out very soon. But no matter how or when that happens, I would still go with a 301.

And - make sure the config is right for the new domain, with all factors properly migrated, so there are no obstacles for spidering the new addresses.

[snsh]

so when practical, one should do a meta-refresh,
wait for new domain to be indexed, then do 301 redirect?

[Spine]

I'm a bit confused. If I buy a new domain, move all my content from my old domain to the new, and put in place a redirect from old to new, will the PR of the old site follow?

I realize that it can take time for toolbar PR, but I'm also worried about the sandbox/holding pattern issue.

[UK_Web_Guy]

Just to add something else - what about existing incoming link benefit - will a 301 or a 302 correctly pick this up?