Cross domain canonicalisation

[danwhitehouse]

Hi all,
I'm hoping you can help!

We've got a site that's been rebranded and reignited. It's similar, but slightly different - but still social networking.

The old site needs is becoming obsolete, but has a fantastic link profile and authority in search engines.

What I was thinking of doing was a cross domain canonicalisation from page to page, but that's not possible as most of the content is different.

So.. what my thought was to cross domain canonical ALL pages from old sites to root domain ONLY on new site.

Do you think this is the type of thing that is best practice? Would it work? I understand that the old site will be deindexed, which is fine, but will the authority all pass through? Will it matter that ALL old pages are only going to one page?

Thanks!

[Marshall]

Most, if not all, SE's do not recognize cross-domain canonical links. Your better bet, assuming the old site is shutting down, is 301 redirect to the new one.

Marshall

[g1smd]

And a mass redirect of hundreds or thousands of URLs to a single target, especially if that is the root of the new site, is generally a bad idea.

[danwhitehouse]

Thanks guys, just as I thought.

[kevingallagher]

I do think Search engines (google any-ways) recognises cross domain canonical.

But Marshall is correct 301's are the best way to go.