Redirecting 4 domains to 1 newish domain

301 redirect, one domain to another

[lindsey]

Hi

I am looking for the best way to go about redirecting 4 old websites into 1 website which is about 6 months old.

I work for a company where we have merged lots of companies into 1 group and at the moment have 5 websites and the people that matter want just 1 much bigger site containing all of what is on the other 4 websites.

I have quite good rankiings in 2 of the sites that have been round for a number of years and obviously do not want to loose this ranking.

Is it best to individually point each page of the old one (on IIS), to one that corrosponds best on the new site? Ie one with the same terms and much the same content. Is this what is called a 302 redirect? This is what i had planned to do.

OR

Is it best to just put a 301 redirect on the whole website pointing at the new website?

I am just affraid that if i do this someone who has searched and usually gets a product page will only get the home page won't they?

I just really want to know what is the best way to go about this, with the best chance of keeping my rankings in google.

Thanks

Lindsey