When I started a few years ago, my companyname.com wasn't available so I used wearcompanyname.com.
Fast forward to last week when I randomly checked to see if companyname.com was available and, lo and behold, it was. So I registered it and put up a page pointing to the wearcompanyname.com site.
Has anyone else ever changed a site address for their company? Should I just keep both up for a while and slowly transition to the new one?
There is a specific way you should forward visitors to the new site.
I would suggest putting up your site at companyname.com . Then you would use a 301 redirect to forward all of your traffic from wearcompanyname.com to companyname.com
The 301 redirect will let search engines (and visitors) know that the content has permanently moved from wearcompanyname to companyname.
If you have a blog on your website, you can put up a quick notice that lets people know about the web address change. Then be sure to change all of your marketing materials, business cards, etc.
thanks rodney. that's the thing i do with the htaccess file, right?
i'll get my courage up to try it. am always scared i'll mess things up when i start changing stuff like that on my site! i know just enough to be dangerous!
i agree with rodney .. thats the best way to do it . at least for now .. do it for a few months then you could drop the old name .. but having both URLs up there will increase the amount of times your name is indexed on google.. so i would think keeping both would have some benefit.
i agree with rodney.. a redirect would be great.. but I like to do it a little different
I would take the new domain yourcomapnyname.com and make that index page a splash page .. with an enter here logo or design for the viewer to click.. that way you have more inbound linking to your origininal site and that new site (even though its just a page) would eventually get indexed on the search engines and put both sites in the results of a search on the engines. more exposure.. and you get the impact of both names. Then what you could do is start putting the easier domain on the clothing you create. so its easier for people to remember
Do you have promotional stuff printed with the older site name? Sometimes folks can have alot of money invested in stationary, business cards, vehicle signs. Dropping the older name could leave you with money out the window there.
I have two domain names. Only one is hosted. No matter which .com someone uses, they both go to the same page. If someone types the name of the one that is not hosted, very quickly, in an instant almost, the www. at the top switches from one to the other. It is almost seamless.
good point. i have some promo stuff printed...enough to warrant keeping both for a while.
cost of maintaining two domains isn't a big issue since the second one is what my provider calls an "alternate domain" on the first site. so no separate monthly hosting fee, just registration cost.
interesting point, 3m, re search engines. i hadn't thought of that.
I had a paintball store and I found it was easier to put mfdps.com on team jerseys than the whole URL so i bought mfdps.com just for that purpose.. then put a splash screen up there that looked just like the splash on the main site
i have since sold the business .. and probably wont do the same thing with my shirt store.. since i dont plan on having a forum for the shirt store
You don't want 2 copies of your site in the search engines. That will give you "duplicate content" penalties which could drop you from the search engines all together.
That's why I suggested the 301 direct. You only host one version of your site and redirect the other domain (permanently) to your new domain. Keep your old domain active forever. No reason not too.
You won't get any search engine benefit from keeping 2 websites live with the same stuff on it.
Is a 301 direct what I do, Rodney? I only host one, but both go to the same page. The change over to the hosted name happens so fast, unless you know to look for it, you don't even see it happen really.
yeah you dont want two sites the same.. all i had were two pages .. that were the same.. and they were a little differrent i had hidden text on the pages so that the engines read the pages as different.. the abbrviated site name one that i had only had the index page on it
Is a 301 direct what I do, Rodney? I only host one, but both go to the same page. The change over to the hosted name happens so fast, unless you know to look for it, you don't even see it happen really.
Yes, a 301 redirect is the best way to redirect the second domain to the first so that the second domain doesn't get indexed.
Changing site name...confusing or ok? 
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