After a domain 301, won't the new URLs be duplicate content?

[Juanne]

Hello peeps!

This is my first time 301'ing a site. Been doing SEO for a while and have never had to deal with this but hey... here goes.

The site is basically being moved from domain1.com to domain2.com. Domain1.com is obviously indexed and domain2.com not.

So I've now gone and uploaded the site to domain2.com and 301 redirected domain1.com to domain2.com; I tested the redirects and all URLS are working fine. I also site:'d domain 1 and checked that the indexed pages are redirecting properly. Fine. It works.

Now before I go ahead and verify domain2.com, I'm concerned about the fact that once the search engines start indexing domain2.com's pages, domain1.com's results will still be there and obviously be identical to domain2.com's results... Isn't this a form of duplicate content? I can't request removal of domain1.com's results because that's quite simply not allowed...

Am I perhaps missing a step here?

[deadsea]

You will want to use the change of address functionality in the Google webmaster tools. Its in Google webmaster tools under "Site Configuration" then "Change of Address".

Google also publishes guidelines for moving a site from one domain to another. Google Webmaster Help: Moving your site:
[google.com...]


Folks here put together a checklist you might find helpful:
Checklist for Moving an Existing Site to New Domain [webmasterworld.com]

[Juanne]

Awesome thanks deadsea! I followed your recommendation but Webmaster Tools is giving me the following error:

We couldn't verify domain1.com. To submit a change of address, domain1.com must be verified using the same method as domain1.com. Add domain1.com to your account and verify ownership, then try again.

domain1.com is in fact verfied (or was prior to the 301 redirect)

Any thoughts?

[deadsea]

You might have lost the verification with the redirect. If you used a metatag on the home page, the home page is now redirecting. If you had uploaded a verification text file, that file is probably now gone and redirecting as well. You probably need to re-verify the site. Either re-upload the text file and configure it not to redirect (may be difficult) or use the DNS server verification method.

[Juanne]

I'll try the DNS server route.

[g1smd]

You can also set the redirect to redirect everything except the verification file URL.

[Juanne]

When I logged into Webmaster tools, a notification popped up informing me that domain1.com was not added as an account. It gave me the option to then add or cancel the request. Clicked add and domain1.com is now verified.

Thank you for your help deadsea and g1smd. The mission is successful and all I need to do now is keep an eye on the redirects and rankings!

[JuneBug]

Using the Change of Address in GWT is just an additional step. The 301 redirect tells the search engines of the new URL and will not show up as duplicate content. So, you're safe. :)