Consequences of moving an old domain to a new domain

[sammyman]

I have an old domain for a site I started years and years ago. It is landroverworld.org. I am wondering what would be the consequences of moving it to a domain I think is better, even though I just picked it up about a year ago (Land Rover Group Forums). I think the landroverworld.org domain is a PR (something older). I actually don't know how to measure this. Would moving to a newer domain significantly affect my google rank? Which domain do you guys think is better? Any advice?

I think my idea is to start the landrovergroup site separately, and then merge them later once they both have decent traffic. Thanks.

 

[Sparhawke]

You are probably far better simply redirecting the .org to the .com I think, now that the first is aged you will just have to start all over again with it, with the back links lost if you do not utilise them in some way.

 

[sammyman]

So one consequence is losing the links that are now aged. Does forwarding preserve these links? Even to a small degree?

How much better is a .com to a .org in the long run?

 

[dotker]

Do a 301 redirect all link juice will be transfered to the new site I dont believe you'll loose ranking this way.

 

[sleepysentry]

If you redirect correctly to the new domain there shouldn't be any loss of rank. I have a family member who recently moved a 15-year-old site with thousands of backlinks from a subdomain to a domain. I was afraid she would lose her very good Google rankings, but she didn't.