Switching from .co to com?

[StickyWebz]

I have a site that does pretty well on a .co domain, but would like to switch to over .com (we own the .com already). If we were to transfer .com and 301 redirect all the .co pages over to their .com version, would we suffer at all? What would you guys recommend?

[Bryan_Loconto]

I agree with WilliamKammer. Our team religiously uses the MoZ website migration guide when dealing with site transfers. At best, you can "minimize" the risk. No real way to prevent the dip in traffic or know when it will level out unfortunately.

[WilliamKammer]

I've never tried it, but I don't think that would avoid the temporary dip.

[StickyWebz]

What do you think about having .com and .co both running the same site at the same time, using REL? Seems like a bad idea though.

[WilliamKammer]

It's usually a few weeks, but there are factors that can make that longer or shorter.

[StickyWebz]

How long would you ETA a dip in traffic?

[WilliamKammer]

This would be like any other site transfer. Do page-level redirects, expect a dip in traffic after you make the switch, and then monitor to see how well you recover and then determine what other action you need to take based on that information.

Here's an in-depth post that can help you out: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/web-site-migration-guide-tips-for-seos