Measuring Sales Conversion and RO I

Think carefully if you are changing domain names at an established site solely for the purpose of change. Google will see your new domain as a brand-new site, even if you have kept all the file names the same. That means all your old incoming links will point to the old domain. I recommend keeping your old domain name unless you have a real compelling reason to change it. For example, my domain www.bluemoosedesign.com originally offered web design and not much else. I now offer search engine optimization and pay-per-click account management but am loathe to change the domain name because of my incoming links.

If you must change domain names, the way to do it properly is to keep your old domain active and insert a "Permanent 301 Redirect" script on that server to instruct browsers and search engines that the old domain and site have been replaced by the new domain and site. This will also transfer PageRank from your old domain to your old domain.

Ask your Webmaster to do this as how exactly to do this as it is a little complex and varies by server (Linux/Apache vs. Windows/IIS).

PARTIII-ExchangingLinksEffectively

This section deals with those aspects and elements of your website promotion efforts that increase page importance . You want to maximize how important your website is with Google.

You should also strive to incorporate some best practices for linking with other sites. For additional information, see Appendix B - Linking Do’s and Don’ts .

Before we begin, make sure you don’t overlook the obvious:

Your website must contain high-quality, useful, timely content that people willactuallywant to link to.

It is amazing how often this statement is ignored. Spend more time creating useful and relevant content, and less time on fancy graphics, gratuitous animations, or Flash – especially on your home page. Remember that Google uses automated software to analyze your site. This means it will ignore all graphics and other multimedia elements on your site - and often your customer will too.

As this section builds on the previous section, it is recommended that you first complete the tasks described in