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I recently received an email from a company claiming they own the rights to the original phrase, and that I need to change my domain name immediately. Although I never received a follow-up email (this was almost a month ago), I am still a bit worried... so here's my question:
I did register my name as a domain (never made a site for it) around the same time that I registered the blog's domain, so if I do a permanent .htaccess redirect from the original domain to the "new" domain, how will that affect FUTURE posts? I know that the current pages should keep their same ranking and just show up as the new domain instead of the old one, but I'm a bit confused as to how future posts will be handled (ie, if they'll be indexed as quickly/highly) since they'll technically be on a "new" domain with no pr. Does all of the pr transfer over to the new domain as well?
The reason I'm worried is that this domain is the main source of my online income (not the only source, just the main source =)) and if it will adversly effect my search engine traffic, then I need to figure out if it's worth hiring a lawyer to help me keep the current domain.
Set up a 301 forward from www.domainA.com to www.domainB.com.
Immediately remove ALL content from domainA.
Test it, by trying to reach any page on domainA, which should end up at identical page at B.
Set up a reader-friendly and useful 404 page on the new domain to catch the stragglers.
DO NOT do any major restructuring at the same time; give the site time to bed down and be assimilated by the SEs.
This will take time, depending on your frequency of spidering. If you try to rush it, you could end up with a new site / sandbox problem for many months.
While you wait, keep adding and growing the new site; and start writing to key linkers asking them to update. Don't worry about all.
Google listings will be off for a while, but if the 301 works, most people won't even notice.
Toolbar page rank will be off for months, but that does not matter.
This is not risk-free; but there is no better way. In the circumstances, probably best to do it as soon as possible - the 301 needs to be around for several months.
Meantime, you can haggle about the price. :) Once you say you are willing to talk, the pressure will be off ... but that's another story.
[edited by: Quadrille at 5:27 pm (utc) on July 31, 2007]
