There are many reasons why people often decide to point their existing blogs to new domain names. Perhaps the existing domain name doesn’t sound attractive. Or, maybe domain name doesn’t fit the topic. Another reason could be that the domain name is a personal name and doesn’t allow the blog to gain a higher level.

Whatever the reason may be, redirecting an existing blog to point to a new domain name can be done. Doing so can be a little tricky though. That is why I put together this list of articles that can help teach you how to do it quickly, and as painlessly as possible.

SEO Guide: How to Properly Move Domains – Published on Aug. 6th, 2009 by Danny Dover of SEOmoz.com. This is a mini-guide aimed at giving people straightforward steps towards moving a domain name while being conscious of SEO. Danny does warn that moving domains can have a negative impact on search engine rankings. He advises that certain steps are followed to minimize adverse affects.

Move your WordPress blog to a new domain in 10 steps! – Published on Feb. 14th, 2008 by Joost de Valk. This is an excellent article that guides you towards moving your WordPress blog in only ten steps. This article to date has received over 100 comments.

How To: Move Your WordPress Blog to a New Domain – Published on Oct. 20th, 2008 by Kyle Eslick. This is one of my personal favorites. Kyle has a great way of writing and explaining things. Especially when it comes to step by step instructions. While this tutorial isn’t summed up in ten steps or published as a mini-guide, it will, however, give you very detailed explanations of the steps needed to move your blog to a new domain name.

Ultimately, my advice to anyone wanting to move their blog to a new domain name is to read all three articles provided above. Most people want to move their blog to a new domain name because its been determined as being the best thing to do for the health of the blog. You can easily limit the level of adversity with this process and actually come out of the deal gaining some immediate positives. Good luck and if you have any comments or questions, please use the comment form below.

I often get asked this question and I would like to open up a discussion with you regarding domain name selection in relation to search engine ranking. In my experience, I feel that the domain name you choose can strongly influence the keywords you rank for in Google. I know that this isn’t always the case, because there are plenty of popular blogs that have odd names, that rank for keywords that aren’t found in their domain name. 

The difference I see though is with popularity and backlinks pointing back to these more popular sites. For me, I build very low traffic and low key niche sites. Just about every web site that I build has a domain name with the primary keywords in it that I am targeting. Typically it doesn’t take very long to rank for the keyword phrase I am targeting. Within that, I will also rank for many relevant keyword phrases based off the primary keyword phrase due to me writing content that specifically targets these other phrases. 

All in all, I have had and continue to have great success with doing this. With that said, I’ll admit, I have never tried to target keyword phrases using a domain name that didn’t match up with the primary keyword phrase I target. So I can’t say for sure that what I am doing is truly a legitimate tactic or strategy. That is why I wanted to carry on a discussion with you about it. I’d like to know your opinion on how important do you think domain name selection is for search engine ranking? Share your feedback and opinions using the comment form below.