Transitioning rankings from one URL to another

Seeking advice on how to phase out an old URL with great rankings

[Jakepot]

I know this is a big project and there isn't one clear way to proceed, so any advice or links to previous threads on this topic would be appreciated.

About 2 years ago, I revamped my company's website using all of the SEO tactics I could find and over those 2 years we were raised to to the first page for every keyword we wanted to be listed for. I'm in a fairly competitive niche industry and we are on page one for the most common and generic keyword in the industry.

A few months ago, my company was acquired by another company and the original brand and website need to eventually be phased out. The new company has awful search rankings. Simply redirecting our URL would kill our rankings which would have a disasterous effect on our sales so I need to proceed cautiously.

Has anyone experienced this and is there some very basic strategy to phase out a URL while working on raising the new one? Duplicate content penalties and brand confusion are my biggest concerns.

[Quadrille]

Depends a little on whether your material will be joining an existing site - or you will have a new domain.

If the former, then start work right now to raise its game, and consider creating a create a 'ghost site' in the folders your content will be moved to.

This would establish key URLs with relevant but not duplicate material, and give the SEs time to assimilate the new site section before moving your content over.

Then (in a few months time)move the content and 301 from the old site.

The vital thing here is not to do any major reorganisation of structure or filenames for sveral months AFTER the move - so prepare to make structural changes now - or in almost a years time. Smaller content changes should not be a problem so long as you aim to grow / increase content, not shrink.

Once the 301 is set up, then start serious link building with quality related sites and quality directories.

the key is to plan the whole thing months ahead so the actual move is smooth ...

If the domain is to be a new one, it's still worth setting it up as a ghost, with real but 'lite' content, just to get it on Google's radar before you move the 'serious' content.

[Jakepot]

Thanks for the help. That sounds like a solid plan. You're right- developing a strategy early is important.

As far as you know, once I've done the 301 and moved full the content over (after first establishing light content and indexing the new site), will Google recognize that it is the same site just at a new URL? I realize that there innevitably will be some down time but I want to keep it as short as possible.