Redirecting old domain to new domain

[Guest Vacation rental in Tuscany]

I am in the process of renewing the web page I used for many years.

My domain is just the name of the vacation rental structure I run, and therefore is not descriptive of the product I sell.

To get a higher place in searches I am considering to buy a domain describing more precisely my activity.

 

Question: If I use my old domain just to redirect traffic to a new domain will I lose something in term of the rank and trust I acquired over the years ?

[administrator]

Yes and no - it's not supposed to have a negative impact. In fact, it's supposed to transfer the your page search engine rank.

 

You have to use a 301 permanent redirect, in PHP:

 

<?php
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://www.new-location.com" );
?> 

[falkencreative]

Alternately, assuming you are using a linux based server on your old site, you can use a .htaccess file to do the 301 redirects: http://kb.mediatemple.net/questions/242/How+do+I+redirect+my+site+using+a+.htaccess+file%3F

[administrator]

Yes, Ben's suggestion is better long term.

 

... I had PHP on my mind.

 

Stefan