SEO question on changing URLs
 

When you change your domain name or url for a homepage is it ok to leave the old one there as a mirror? Do search engines catch onto these things and do they penalize you for it? If so, whats the best way to redirect users to the new website which will go good with search engines (ex. click here for new page, immediate redirect, delayed redirect, etc.)

Interested in this as well..bump for you!

I'd go for a http status code 301, moved permanently. the redirected page should regain the PR over time, but for me also hasn't in some cases.

what about for removing pages? what do you do then, a 404 redirect to your homepage?

Correct answer.

I know dis. :Graucho

Thanks! This is htaccess right? What do I put again just to be sure?

Ideally, changing urls is bad but sometimes unavoidable. 301 permanent redirects is what I'd use if i had to make such a change.
WG

So leaving it as a mirror (lets say for example www.sexforums.net and www.sexforums.com) would be bad for search engines? What exactly should I put in htaccess to do the redirects?

Ideally, you wouldn't change links at all because everyone's backlinks are to your old domain. And as for the htaccess, I've never made a change like this so I'm not sure how to set it up to be honest.

WG

So a 301 is much better than a page saying "this page has moved, click here to be redirected to our new site"? Thanks for the help!

I have always been told always to leave a page. Yet, I not know if I believe it or not.

ErrorDocument 301 newsiteurl
ErrorDocument 400 newsiteurl
ErrorDocument 401 newsiteurl
ErrorDocument 403 newsiteurl
ErrorDocument 404 newsiteurl
ErrorDocument 500 newsiteurl

Would this work for htaccess?

Ok that didnt work, I just used the redirect option cpanel offers. Hope that is good

had to change the page names on a PR5 and PR6 site, and after a month I only got upto a PR3 using 301 redirects. best advice is don't change!

Still confused on what a 301 redirect is