Here's where Google's WebmasterTools console can really help you over the coming months.
Sign up and then register and verify exampleoldsite.com, www.exampleoldsite.com, examplenewsite.com and www.examplenewsite.com.
Keep a very close eye in the internal linking reports. You'll soon see if there are any stray links pointing to the wrong place.
Check what is listed in Google using:
site:exampleold.com -inurl:www
site:www.exampleold.com
site:examplenew.com -inurl:www
site:www.examplenew.com
You're looking for the new site numbers to go up quickly. The old site numbers will reduce very slowly. That is normal.
Additionally set up a 301 redirect from the old domain name to the new domain name to preserve traffic because the old site will remain listed for several months.
Assuming ZC is not installed in a folder:
Code:
# Index Redirect for /index.php with no parameters
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index\.php\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ http://www.example.com/? [R=301,L]
# Index Redirect for /(index.php)?main_page=index(&cPath=<blank>) URL
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /(index\.php)?\?main_page=index(&cPath=)?\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^(index\.php)?$ http://www.example.com/? [R=301,L]
# Canonical Redirect non-www to www [EXCLUDE /admin requests]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(www\.example\.com)?$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/admin [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]
If ZC is installed in a folder:
Code:
# Index Redirect for /zencart/index.php with no parameters
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /zencart/index\.php\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^zencart/index\.php$ http://www.example.com/zencart/? [R=301,L]
# Index Redirect for /zencart/(index.php)?main_page=index(&cPath=<blank>) URL
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /zencart/(index\.php)?\?main_page=index(&cPath=)?\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^zencart/(index\.php)?$ http://www.example.com/zencart/? [R=301,L]
# Canonical Redirect non-www to www [EXCLUDE /zencart/admin requests]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(www\.example\.com)?$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/zencart/admin [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]
This will redirect all page requests for any hostname other than exactly "www.example.com" to the exact same page on "www.example.com".
The code also corrects Duplicate Content issues with the root index page.
If your site uses "example.com" instead of "www.example.com" you will need to edit every occurance of the domain name to remove the www part in the above code.