301 redirect: from an acquired domain with PageRank, to a new site

What is the proper way to do this?

[webservices4]

Hello forum,

Would like to get clarification on the 301-redirect in relationship to acquiring domain names with Google Page Rank.

- I acquired a PR 4 domain name in a SnapNames auction for a client who has a new site, but very related to the topic that we acquired the PR 4 domain had history in (existing links in DMOZ/Google directories, etc.).

- Our server hosts unlimited domains so we set up a new account for this newly acquired domain name with PR 4 and in the .htaccess file, I'm using the following code:

redirectMatch 301 ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com
redirectMatch permanent ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com

- With those 2 lines of code above, am I doing this right in order to keep the quality of the PR 4 domain name we acquired or should there be more to the code on the .htaccess file? ... I think I've seen some examples before where there's a short 3-5 second delay - not sure if that's useful or not ...

Also - is the idea behind acquiring a PR 4 domain (or any name with quality PR for that matter) and 301-redirecting it to a new domain that has zero-PR, a way to give that new domain some PR over time?

Any help on the above would be appreciated ... thanks.

[edited by: martinibuster at 5:00 am (utc) on Sep. 16, 2007]
[edit reason] Example.com is for examples. Examplified URL. ;) [/edit]

[tedster]

A 301 redirect at the domain level does transfer (usually and eventually and in some part) the PageRank and backlink influence over to the target domain. I'm not 100% sure on my next point, but my recollection is that DMOZ may eventually drop the listing if an editor notices that the domain they've listed now redirects, instead of resolving directly.

While the PR may transfer, you really do need to work at promoting the new domain name directly - so it is seen as strong on it's own, too.

I would also suggest doing a backlink study for the redirecting domain. Where possible, get those links changed to the new site, and also look for opportunities to redirect internal links from the old side to an appropriate INTERNAL url on the target site.