URL change

[gtate]

I'm webmaster for a site which uses the company name as the url. I've noticed that the other 50 or so sites I manage appear to do better when the key phrase is part of the URL, and would like to change their domain name accordingly.

Is there a way I can do this without losing them traffic for the time it takes Google to rank the new domain ?

Would a 301 redirect do this?

Any help on this appreciated ...

[Quadrille]

There are scores of factors that MAY influence how well a site does, and domain name is just one. In almost all cases, the damage done in changing URLs far, far outweighs any conceivable benefit (which may be zero anyway!).

Cool URIs don't change [w3.org]

There are many threads that discuss this in some detail.

[gtate]

Thanks for that Quadrille, I'm sure you are right, and generally I've heeded advice at SEO seminars which say that branding is more important than worrying about putting the desired key phrase as part of the domain name.

It's just rather depressing to see that my client comes 6th for 'widgets', and 4 out of the top 5 results have 'widgets' in the domain name.

I've suggested a one way linking campaign using 'widgets' as the link phrase, so hopefully that might help.