We are currently indexed by Google under www.domainname.com/sitename . We are highly ranked for several search terms that we are happy with.

For logisitical and organizational reasons, we are changing our site to www.sitename.com

Are there any good resources on how best to make this transition without negatively affecting Google rankings?

Once the site is set up on the new server is it advisable to set up individual page redirects on the old server to the corresponding pages under the new domain name? Do I submit a new google sitemap from the new domain? I want to avoid being penalized by Google, but I'm not sure where to start.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Dan,

I've not done this myself, but here's an article on Switching to a New Domain Without Losing Your Google Rankings

The problem with that advice is that it can effectively create a duplicate content setup. By "temporarily redirecting" the site, it implies that the old site will be coming back with something else so a search engine may store a cached copy. That's why I haven't tried it personally...I can see a really easy way to get trapped.

I haven't tried this myself, but I have tried the 301 approach with no real issues. 301, a few fresh/updated links accordingly, and you should be fine.

create a permanent redirection to the sitename.com.
the pr will follow

yup a 301 redirect is what you need

this should work

in the folder:
www.domainname.com/sitename

place a file called .htaccess
in that file add this line of code

Redirect 301 / http://www.sitename.com/

this would redirect all corresponding pages to the new domain so

www.domainname.com/sitename/contact-us.html
will go to

http://www.sitename.com/contact-us.html