Question regarding backlinks and switching domains

[SladeK]

Well, I was thinking about switching domains. The domain I initially purchased is fairly broad, and since then; I have focused my efforts into a more specific niche.

IE: my current site is something along the lines of BestGadgetReviews.com; and I have begun to focus on a page within that domain on a specific electronics product, and now would like to buy a domain with that electronics product in the domain, and build pages around different keywords on that piece of electronics.

So I currently have 60 articles out pointing to this landing page, would all I need to do is edit those articles and change the back links in them from my old domain to my new one, and wait for the SERPS to update? Or is it more involved than that?

[dougp]

Originally Posted by SladeK

Well, I was thinking about switching domains. The domain I initially purchased is fairly broad, and since then; I have focused my efforts into a more specific niche.

IE: my current site is something along the lines of BestGadgetReviews.com; and I have begun to focus on a page within that domain on a specific electronics product, and now would like to buy a domain with that electronics product in the domain, and build pages around different keywords on that piece of electronics.

So I currently have 60 articles out pointing to this landing page, would all I need to do is edit those articles and change the back links in them from my old domain to my new one, and wait for the SERPS to update? Or is it more involved than that?

You could do that, but that would take a lot of time and it will negate all of the other sites that are linking to you as well. The easiest thing for you to do is perform a 301 redirect to your new domain, as this is the most search engine friendly redirect. Here is the php code to do this:

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

[crystalq]

Do not buy domains with trademark brands in them, the trademark owner will be able take away your domain and all of your hard work would have been for nothing.

[SladeK]

Originally Posted by crystalq

Do not buy domains with trademark brands in them, the trademark owner will be able take away your domain and all of your hard work would have been for nothing.

Yeah I understand that, my domain will not have an actual brand name in it, just the type of electronics the product is.

Appreciate the warning though.

And thanks for the info on the redirect, Doug, I will go that route.