Domain Change
Changing or Adding Domain Names

If you want to change domain names the short answer is don't do it if you have a domain that has some age on it. Instead, add a domain name to it by 301 redirecting the new name to the old domain.

For an example of how this works type into your browser southwestair.com and you will be redirected to southwest.com.

A common seo practice is to buy older domains with backlinks that have been abandoned or have been inactive for long periods. The domain is then 301 redirected to your domain which provides link juice from the search engines through the redirect. The redirect must be done properly to prevent "rewinding the clock" on the domain.

A number of things can happen to rewind the clock. Depending on the circumstances a 302 temporary redirect might be advisable initially followed by a 301.

If a domain has expired the chances of de-aging or rewinding the clock are greatest.


WHAT IS A REDIRECT
Simply stated, a redirect is used to change the page, or website, a visitor sees when clicking a link or typing in a URL.

A 301 redirect is a permanent method of informing a search engine spider that the page being redirected should be permanently replaced by the new page that it is redirected to.

A 302 redirect is a temporary redirect and informs the spider that the page has only been moved temporarily. The indexing status of the page will not be changed, but the actual redirection will take place just like a 301.


Here are some examples of redirects used in .htaccess files on Apache servers.

301 redirect any page in domain.com to the same page using www.domain.com
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=permanent,L]


301 redirect a page to another page or website
redirect 301 /page.html http://www.YourDomainName.com/anotherpage.html


301 redirect multiple pages beginning with /news to a single page
redirectMatch 301 ^/news([^.]+)\.html$ http://www.domain.com

301 redirect an entire site to another site
redirect 301 / http://www.DestinationSite.com


301 redirect all domain pages to same page on new domain (moving site)
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.NewDomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]


302 redirect page1 to page2 (temporary)
RewriteRule ^page1\.html$ page2.html [R,L]