John Rampton published an article today on Forbes that looks at switching domain names and keeping search ranking. He does point out that you are more likely to drop in the rankings immediately after making a move. This should be a short term drop.

Rampton provides a step by step guide for those looking to make such a move, he goes over 8 points you should follow when making your move, everything from backing up your website, creating a sitemap and letting Google know about your move.

From the article:

While I’ve provided a general overview of the technical aspects of moving your site, there are a few best practices you should keep in mind to make sure the process runs as smoothly as possible:

• Be sure to let your followers, subscriber,s and email visitors know about the move well in advance. This is particularly important if you’re also changing your name or website design. Consider using a pop-up box on your site to let visitors know about the change, and using a transitional logo or byline to help maintain brand recognition (e.g., “Formerly known as…..”).

• Whenever possible, do page-to-page redirects rather than a sitewide redirect. This means directing your old pages to the most relevant pages on your new site – not just directing everything to your homepage.

• Be prepared to wait 3-6 months for your rankings to reach pre-move levels. For this reason, it’s important to avoid making the move during a busy time of year.

• Consider stepping up your game when it comes to PR following the move. This can help generate authoritative links to your new domain, boosting your rankings, and potentially speeding up the process of restoring your search traffic.

Read the full article on Forbes