Minimize Traffic Loss

[Rose.fire]

How can we minimize traffic loss after changing the domain name?

[bobchrist]

You should inform your users about the changes that you've made.

[Dani]

Use an htaccess file to do a 301 Redirect to point pages on the old domain name to pages on the new domain name. When search engines crawl the old pages, they understand what this means, and update their listings.

[Rose.fire]

Use an htaccess file to do a 301 Redirect to point pages on the old domain name to pages on the new domain name. When search engines crawl the old pages, they understand what this means, and update their listings.

Thanks for the information. but do i have to make this change for each and every page of the site?

[tiger86]

this is just a wild idea but couldn't you set the 404.shtml to redirect to the new site? that way you don't have to do anything but put the re-direct code in the 404 file and then let it work that way. for search engine sakes I would add in like a 5 second delay where it says "we have moved to (new site name here)" or something like that.

[Dani]

Thanks for the information. but do i have to make this change for each and every page of the site?

No, you can use regular expressions to forward all pages from old domain to equivalent pages of new domain. For example, www.oldsite.com/page.html will redirect to www.newsite.com/page.html and, using a 301 redirect, the search engine crawlers are aware that there is that one-to-one correspondence between the pages, and that the content has simply been permanently moved.

[Simrn]

All places, where you've discussed your website with old name, try to modify the name there as well. It's necessary to establish the brand popularity you've gotten so far, particulary essential if you have been a big name in your niche.

[lindamoodbell]

you need to evaluate your website with targeted business keywords.

[Rose.fire]

No, you can use regular expressions to forward all pages from old domain to equivalent pages of new domain. For example, www.oldsite.com/page.html will redirect to www.newsite.com/page.html and, using a 301 redirect, the search engine crawlers are aware that there is that one-to-one correspondence between the pages, and that the content has simply been permanently moved.

Yeah understood. Is URL change is connected with Keywords? I mean do i have to work on Keywords once the site is redirected to newsite. Here only the url is changed and nothing else, not even the content. I think I have to work on keywords if the content is changed.