What to do with a bad URL name?

[Greg]

I have a question for you guys that are into domaining. I'm really looking at buying this domain that ranks very well for the niche I'm marketing. It's an old domain with good content but the design and actual URL are terrible. What's the logic (and steps) needed to re-direct it to something new and not loose the momentum? Honestly, for this to grow I'll need to rely some on branding and offline marketing, but with the current URL it'll be impossible.

[Jeremy]

Register a new domain that is brandable, move the content, and then just 301 redirect all the old pages to the new ones via the htaccess.

[simoneaton]

I have a question for you guys that are into domaining. I'm really looking at buying this domain that ranks very well for the niche I'm marketing. It's an old domain with good content but the design and actual URL are terrible. What's the logic (and steps) needed to re-direct it to something new and not loose the momentum? Honestly, for this to grow I'll need to rely some on branding and offline marketing, but with the current URL it'll be impossible.

Get as much SEO value as you can out of the domain

[Ridge]

I'm not so sure I would jump to buying a new domain and 301'ing everything. Hard to say w/o seeing the domain and structure, but an aged domain ranking well in a specific niche carries a lot of weight. Just depends I suppose.

Obviously you know about 301 and such, so something in your mind has you hesitating as well. There is other possible solutions other than redirecting everything anyway. So just be sure and look at all possibilities

[Zujo]

You might think about using sub-domains that you would prefer and that contain the keywords you'd like to rank for. I don't see why a particular domain would be bad if it is aged and ranking well unless it is just for branding purposes.