Company Name Change - 301 Redirect worry

[BBonanza]

Hi Guys,
We are in the process of changing our company name and have purchased the new domain name for the company.
My worry is that my 301 redirect from domain1 to domain2 will have issues because domain2 is a brand new domain.
Does the sandbox effect take effect on my new domain? or will google treat the new domain as the old?
I don't want to mess it up and lose all my search engine positions.
Thanks

[jimbeetle]

As far as Google is concerned, yes, the new domain is, well, new. It's going to take it awhile to digest the 301s, though exactly how long is hard to say. You just have to accept that the site is going to take a hit for a time.

Things you can do to help it along is try to have existing backlinks changed to point to the new domain and not rely entirely on the 301s, and try to build new backlinks to the new domain.

[HuskyPup]

I am going to assume you are going to do a 100% url for url replacement of the site yet using new company logo etc? That is place the old site in its entirety on the new domain name?

If you do a URL forward of the old name from your domain registrar's control panel to your new name, both with and without www if given the option, then you should not suffer too much at all and by doing this you will retain all your existing backlinks.

I've done this several times with no ill effects plus Google/Yahoo! and Bing all seem to like this method.

If you are creating a totally new site and going for a 301/url forward with the old name I have no idea!

[BBonanza]

Thanks Jim,
I will take your advise on the backlinks and swallow the hit. Hopefully not too long though.

[BBonanza]

Yes Husky, it will be exactly the same other than URL/LOGO.
That is good news to me :-)
One very large company who were top for a very desirable car related term, were taken over by another big car corp.
The domain name at the top changed overnight with no ill effects. Problem is we're not a big company who can pull strings, so I was sceptical it could be done.
Thanks again

[tedster]

Also, in Google Webmaster Tools there is now a "change of address" form that can speed the transition to good rankings for a new domain. Because the same owner verifies both domains and the 301 redirects demonstrate no other change, this can improve Google's trust in your new domain more quickly.

[jimbeetle]

"change of address" form

Oooh, missed that. Nice touch, Google.

[bwnbwn]

jimbeetle be sure and never let the old domain ever drop keep it renewed.

[HuskyPup]

be sure and never let the old domain ever drop keep it renewed.

Yes, very good point or least do not use it again for about a year.

Again I have also done this very recently with no adverse affects to either site however if you do have a lot of crucial backlinks I wouldn't even bother considering re-using the original name.