Changing domains - ways to minimize ranking impact

[Sunflux]

I run an "authority" site on a niche subject that has always ranked very well in Google on its core keywords. The site is over 11 years old and has been on the same domain for that length of time. I'm the first and only owner of the domain.

The problem is the site's current name/domain is getting to be too restrictive, and I had wanted to change to something more generic. Now as luck would have it I registered another domain about 10 years ago that would be ideal for this purpose. Once again I'm the first owner of that domain, and it's been "active" but unused all these years - just a splash page (and that one page IS indexed).

Although I've been wanting to broaden out for several years now, I've always been scared to change anything regarding the domain or even the site structure because ALL of my traffic comes from organic searches.

Is there any way to move the site without having a negative impact on its status? I've been reading about using 301 redirects, which I've been doing up until now for when certain minor programs change their structure, but is that "surefire"? How about thinkgs like incoming links that of course point to the old domain?

I appreciate any guidance...

[tedster]

Check out the related threads in the Hot Topics area [webmasterworld.com], which is always pinned to the top of this forum's index page. There are several relevant ones, including Google's own recommendations for moving to a new domain.

You've got an advantage over many similar cases in that you already own a suitable live domain name. But you should still plan for a dip in traffic if you make this move. Is there any way you could develop the other domain to cover the "expansion topics" and retain the 11 year success story as it is?

[Sunflux]

Yeah, I read through those FAQ topics, and while they had some suggestions on a 301 strategy, there was no real feedback or followup from people who have actually attempted this - what worked and what didn't.

Well, I did see one report from a few years ago, but it was 6 months later saying that they probably wouldn't try it again. :-/

[AnkitMaheshwari]

Recently, about 8 months ago we redirected one of our 4 yrs old brand domain (say www.example.co.uk) to a 10 yrs old domain, www.example.com

We simply created all the pages in .com and implemented 301 redirects page-wise wherever possible (or should I say where we had maximum traffic), however large part of the site was folder level redirect as implementing more than 50K page levels was not possible.

I would like to share that things are fine and traffic is improving (150% from .co.uk 8 months back) only with first month fluctuations.

Now we have started with the re-design of the site when we feel that first phase is/was successful.

[Seb7]

If done correctly, you can get better and more traffic than you had before.