New Domain Name / Branding and SEO

[johnrbek]

I have read and understand that you can be penalized for having multiple domains pointed to the same site.

My question is, does that apply to many domains or will I be penalized for just 2 domains pointed to the same site.

Basically, I've come up with new branding and a new domain for my site, but I don't want to lose the traffic that I have under the old domain... Would I be better off just killing the old domain or will I be okay leaving the old domain active and pointing to the site branded under the new domain name?

Thanks in advance for any insight!

[pageoneresults]

Hello johnrbek. Your best option in this type of scenario would be to implement a 301 Moved Permanently redirect from the old domain to the new domain.

What type of server is your site hosted on? Windows or Unix? If on Windows, you'll want to look at third party ISAPI filters like ISAPI_Rewrite. If on Unix, you'll want to look into the mod_rewrite module.