Stages of renaming a site

What's the right sequence of steps...?

[bluegrass]

Renaming a site involves both marketing and SEO issues equally, and the two have to work together in harmony for the thing to work.

I suggest the following sequence of events.

1) Make sure there are good reasons to do it.
2) (Perhaps announce on your site you are going to do it: “Watch this space for the new name!”)
3) If possible, pick a domain name which includes your keywords.
4) Make sure all your internal links are relative
5) Set up simple forwarding from Newsite.com to Oldsite.com.
6) Announce prominently on your site that Oldsite.com will soon become Newsite.com. Do a Press Release on the name change.
7) After a period (say a month), Change the DNS for Newsite to your IP address.
8) Set up a 301 redirect.
9) Write to your linkers asking them to update their links to you.
10) Rebrand the site “Newsite.come - formerly Oldsite.com”
11) After a further month set up a popup for those who type Oldsite.com into their browser. Clicking on it takes them to Newsite.com. Avoid using a meta refresh to redirect to Newsite.com.

Comments welcome!

What I’m not sure about…

1) A 301 redirect apparently won’t work on Inktomi… So should I submit Newsite.com to Ink? If so when?
2) While the 301 redirect is working through the system, can I expect to see Oldsite.com gradually slip down the SE results page, or will there be a sudden change? And will the PR be passed suddenly or gradually too?
3) Tricky one – what is the relative merit in terms of PR of a domain name which includes the entire keyword phrase and one without? Twice as good?

Thanks…!