Submit a Sitemap Before Changing Domains
From Weycrest Support Wiki
Contents |
Change of Domain Name
Lets say you are tired with your existing domain, or in the process of rebranding and have decided to move your site to a new domain. Alternatively you might be looking to just reorganising your site, but in the process a lot of URL's and links will change.
A lot of people fail to consider how these changes will effect Google's ability to index your site. This could effect your search engine rankings.
Submit a Sitemap to Google
The good news is you can a new Sitemap to Google in advance of the changes! This helps Google learn about the new pages right away. Make sure the new Sitemap is placed in the root directory of the new site as the Sitemap must be located on the same domain as the site URLs contained in it.
Redirection
Importantly, redirect visitors from the old site to the new one. Put a 301 (permanent) redirect on every page of your old site to point to the corresponding page on the new site.
More information on 301 HTTP redirects can be obtained from RFC-2616. You can learn more about how to make the site transition as smooth as possible from the Google Help Center.
You can create start a dialogue with Google by going to Google Webmaster Tools (requires a google account).
