Switching from a free host to a proper domain name

How to keep the google ranking intact?

[sahuman]

I have a site hosted on a free host. Let's assume it is mysite.freehost.com. It does well on SEs like Google and Yahoo. I would like the existing site to appear under a URL like mysite.com. The free hosting service does have an upgrade plan with domain registrations.

-How do I ensure that my new URL (mysite.com) takes over the SE rankings that the old URL (mysite.freehost.com) had?
-Also, what about the existing backlinks? Do these have to be updated too?
- Are the procedures different for Yahoo, Google and MSN?

[rfgdxm1]

You'd need to do a 301 redirect from all the old URLs to the URLs at the new domain name. This is not possible with many free hosts.

[sahuman]

Is there a generic .htaccess code that I can use? How long do I keep the pages on the old server too? And do the backlinks have to be updated manually?

Thank you.

[KingMacro]

also, dont forget to contact all of the websites linking to you and request that they update their links to the new URL - as well as doing the 301

and, you have a free web host that allows you to use .htaccess files? that is a suprise

depending on the site it might be a good idea to do a "this site has moved" page with a link to the new URL, and to only send the 301 for the search engines (just to inform users) - but that does depend on what type of site it is, in a lot of cases a 301 is best with a notice on the new URL's home page for a few weeks mentioning the new URL

[topr8]

imho ... leave the original (free) site as it is.

build the new site using your new domain name, host it somewhere(else)

then link to the new one from the old one.

there are lots of reasons to do it this way, nearly all good.