We have changed the domain name of our church and redirected our old domain to the new domain.

Now that we've done this we lost all search results within the Google Custom Search application. I have reindexed our site with the major search engines, but is there a way to move all of the search results over to the new domain? Or should I still use search results for the old site temporarily?

new domain: peaceofchristparish.org
old domain: wintonculver.org

Thanks,
Wilbury

You have to use a 301 redirect and if the domain name is brand new wait 8 to 12 months for the aging delay to run out.

Thanks for the info.

The redirect works well, except in the instance where someone does not use the www. before the name.

Can I do something to correct this? The control panel only allows one redirect, not multiple redirects.

Don't use cpanel. Just go into you .htaccess file. This will accomplish the same thing, for your users, and for search engines. And it's far more flexible, although, with great utility comes great frustration.

I wish I could give you more specific advice on how to work with mod_rewrite, but I can at least give you the sample code that works for me. I used to use landscapephoto.us for my domain name, and after expanding beyond landscapes, changed to forrestcroce.com, so needed 301 ( permanent ) redirects to carry the "linkjuice" from the old domain to the new one. This snippet redirects to the new domain, and forces not using a www subdomain. While I can't explain all of the syntax here, I think you can just replace my domain name with yours and have this work:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^forrestcroce\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://forrestcroce.com/$1 [R=301,L]

If not, there are some bright people who will be able to point out what else needs to be changed, or other approaches you might take.

yep - 301 redirects via htaccess file is the way to go - and keep your old domain pages up

Is your problem solved?

I agree a 301 redirect is needed. when you get a new domain you end up starting over as far as search engines are concerned. only do this if you have to.