Company domain change - Google prefer 301 or 302?

[NicolaG]

Hi,

Would appreciate any thoughts on the following problem:

the website has been going for 10 years and has excellent Google rankings, link popularity and page rank. It is being taken over by another company, who want the website redirected.

I understand that 301 redirects are the way to go, to equivalent content/file names on the new domain. However, the new company are insisting that all visitors are redirected to a holding page microsite, but may consider using a 301 to similar pages in the future.

So for this interim period to the microsite, which is the best option to retain Google listings - 301 or 302 or something else?!

Thanks

[tedster]

A 301 [permanent] redirect will mean that the NEW domain name gets indexed. At least some of the backlink influence and PR for the old domain should eventually pass to the new domain as well.

A 302 [temporary] redirect will mean that the OLD domain stays in the index, even while the title and description of the new domain Home Page may get shown in the search results.

By redirecting all the individual URLs from the old domain to one page on a new domain, you will be creating a huge bump in the road for traffic, no matter whether it's a 301 or 302. In essence, you are now telling Google (and all search engines) that all those URLs are now just one bit of content.

If this is what the company will do no matter what, then you simply will lose traffic with either choice. Launching any new domain -- even if it's fully developed at launch and not a microsite -- is usually quite problematic. In fact, completely redeveloping an old domain is usually problematic for traffic!

Since the new domain is where you are headed eventually in any case, that domain will be subject to a period of building history and trust with Google before it begins to generate anywhere near the current levels of traffic. This is inevitable with any new domain.

So I'd say go with the 301 from the beginning and start building history for the new domain. Get that "hazing" period over with as soon as possible.

[g1smd]

I will recommend a site-wide 301 redirect preserving the full folder and file path in the redirect.

Anything less will be hindering you, not helping.

Oh, and the old URLs will show as supplemental results for about one year after the redirect is applied. They will not harming things; in fact they will be channeling a small amount of extra traffic to the new site.

[NicolaG]

Thanks for your responses :-)