Domain Name change w/ Structure redesign questions

Domain Name & Structure redesign

[USCountytrader]

I have a Rank 5 Website "with over 162k pages indexed" thats been running for the last 5 years that uses some really long Url's & also has a 14 char domain name.

Recently, after many years of looking, I came across a Domain name that makes alot more sense, is shorter "only 9 chars instead of 14", And is much easier to remember then my current Domain.

As i go through my pages and change my link structure, giving it a face list and consolidating. I am putting all my cleaned up files in a new Directory. When i am done, I am gonna delete the old site and leave just a custom 404 in that directory.

My Question Is, I know my traffic is gonna plumet for a while. Is it possible to retain some PR and traffic by designing a custom 404 that does a lookup of the old link requested and then does a "Response.Status="301 Moved Permanently" to the new link? Or should i just response.redirect everything to the new main page?

Also, How long do you my income from this will get hammered?

I have learned alot "mostly from here" since I built this site 5 years ago, So if im gonna change domain names, might as well redesign "Link Structure & All". Any feedback would be great

[Hugene]

There is another thread on the question just here [webmasterworld.com]. Changing / re-designing your site seems to be a hot topic now; I have a set of questions of my own that I posted in that thread.

It is a bit unbeliavable that we are so concerned about the effects that changing a site will have on SERPS. The Internet is mostly about evolution, so G should build a system that adapts quickly; on the Internet there is no justification for the sentence "if something works, why fix it", the Internet is all about fixing it.