Hi
I am building a new website for a company. They already have a domain, on which their old website is hosted, but have asked me to purchase a slightly different domain name as well.
I’m just wondering which domain it would be best to build on and which to do a 301 redirect on.
I presume it would be best to build it on the old domain and redirect the new one, but the thing is, this would take much longer and involve much more negotiating with their old web designers.
It would be much faster for me to buy the new domain, do a fresh Wordpress install and build the site, and ask the old web designers to redirect the other domain.
Would it be very harmful to their search engine results? Or would it be a small sacrifice which would allow me to build the new site much more efficiently?
Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks!
It depends on how old the old domain name is and how much page rank it has. I recently done the same thing and used the old domain name. Get the name servers from the hosting company you are using and point the domain to them. This will be much better for the seo on the website. As far as taking longer, make sure you get paid for the extra work 
By the way the 301 redirect would work but you do not want the previous company maintaining authority over the domain name.
Unless you copy the old database, you’ll lose PR on all the articles at the old domain - and I doubt they’d let you copy their database. Ask your client for the database to be delivered to them (then forwarded to you) in the format of whatever database engine you’re using (i.e., MySQL).
Since mod_alias can’t read the query string, your Redirect statements are worthless - and would be difficult for you to map without using the current database. All signs point to some cooperation from your predecessor, IMHO.
Regards,
DK
Thanks all!