Want to move contents to domain2 and use domain1 for other content

[interalta]

Hello,

We would like to merge two existing, fairly well positioned web forums. Contents (threads and posts) from www.forocreativo.net would be moved to www.comunidadhosting.com. We are testing some scripts which will handle redirect 301 for every single thread from forocreativo.net to comunidadhosting.com.

But here is the thing: once all current contents are moved out of www.forocreativo.net, we would like to use this domain to point it to a specific geographic region and to target other niche/topics.

Would you say we can do this and Google will not penalize neither of those 2 domains?

Any input is more than welcome. Thank you!

[interalta]

Thanks for your reply, Gianluca.

[Vizergy]

I stand corrected  Thank you, sir.

See, interalta?  Told ya if I was wrong someone would politely point it out  I love this community.

[gfiorelli1]

Hola,

I wouldn't use the "Change of address" option, because it is referring to all the site/domain moving to a new one.

So, I will just use 301 and the "Fetch as Google" option in GWT asap you put live the redirection.

It is quite proved that that function is calling googlebot to a site almost instantly, so, with Googlebot crawling the site, it will see immediately the 301s.

Obviously, this is not going to make the snippets changes as fast as using the "Change of Address option", but it is still a good option.

Ah... I would do a fetch like Google also for the other site..

[Vizergy]

I think it would be fine to use the change of address is Google Webmaster Tools.  You are simply saying that this content now resides over here and this GWT account should now monitor the new domain over the old one.  The effects of this tool are temporary - it helps your new domain replace the old one in the serps, with the old domain's rankings, while Google crawls the new domain a few times.  I think it is like six months or something.  This does not make the old domain useless - just useless with the old content.

If I am wrong I will be corrected.  This community is awesome.

[interalta]

Thanks for your reply, Billy.

A big job, certainly. More than 38,000 threads and almost 385,000 posts.

Of course we will not redirect the main domain and will not use the GWT feature to report the "Change of Address"... though we are not sure on this one. Any advice?

[Vizergy]

Wow - this is a big job.

However, done correctly I see no reason for any penalties.  Obviously don't do a domain level redirect (duh) and the only issue I can see is if you accidentally reused one of the redirected page names... but then you could just remove that single 301.

Just be careful, triple check everything before launch and I think you will be just fine.