301 case study

[nimdekvan]

Nothing fancy here just a note to myself how long does it take for a newly registered domain to receive a link juice from the old one.

After I've been with one private affiliate and making constant sales, they decided my old domain name shouldn't contain theirs brand name.
My domain name was like nike-review.com
and they said they don't want "nike" in my domain.
So yeah better safe than sorry. I registered a new one immediately and transfer the whole contents including all comments (one of them has 200+ comments)
For all those who don't know this, if you're using wordpress there is a built-in plugin that can do this for you and it is really easy. No need to watch the video just follow the steps.
http://www.bradymower.com/how-to-move-posts-to-new-wordpress-site/
Then 301 with
RedirectPermanent / http://www.new-domain.com/
in .htaccess and of course a blank line under the code.

Domain registered on 2 Nov 2019 (in my local time) and the 301 was done in the same day.
Today Nov 10. The new site started to rank for the same keyword the old domain was. And the old domain started to lose it ranks.
Here is the pic. (the app is called SERPmojo)

To sum up it takes around 1 week for the 301 to take effects (in this case not some BH backlinks strategy)

 

[Psh]

Did you get back to the same rank positions after the 301, or are they slightly worse/lower with the new domain?

 

[nimdekvan]

Did you get back to the same rank positions after the 301, or are they slightly worse/lower with the new domain?

Chill dude. Take a look in the pic LOL

 

[Psh]

Chill dude. Take a look in the pic LOL

What are you talking about? I can clearly see your image, that's not the point. It's just showing low ranks going higher, not showing what you rank after the 301 with the new domain, or am I wrong? All I can see is that you're getting a boost from the 301, which is f-ing obvious, but not the exact positions before/after.

For example, if you ranked #5 for your main keyword with the nike-review domain, are you now ranking the same on your main keyword with the new domain? From what I've seen with 301s before, you never get back to the same positions as before, always slightly worse-off, and that's what I was wondering.

 

[nimdekvan]

What are you talking about? I can clearly see your image, that's not the point. It's just showing low ranks going higher, not showing what you rank after the 301 with the new domain, or am I wrong? All I can see is that you're getting a boost from the 301, which is f-ing obvious, but not the exact positions before/after.

For example, if you ranked #5 for your main keyword with the nike-review domain, are you now ranking the same on your main keyword with the new domain?

Ah, may be the pic I made was not clear.
On the left side, the orange numbers are the rankings of old domain before the 301. and the black numbers are today rankings.
On the right side is the newly registered domain. It doesn't rank for anything until today.
Hope it's clear now.
(I have no screenshot of old domain before the day the rankings drop)

 

[Psh]

Ah, may be the pic I made was not clear.
On the left side, the orange numbers are the rankings of old domain before the 301. and the black numbers are today rankings.
On the right side is the newly registered domain. It doesn't rank for anything until today.
Hope it's clear now.

Ah now I get it, yeah the image was confusing to me. I'll blame being hungover.

Thanks

 

[clubitvn]

I think you need to take the next step on setting up Google webmaster?
For example, adding a new domain name and speeding up the index.

 

[fb3003]

Ah, may be the pic I made was not clear.
On the left side, the orange numbers are the rankings of old domain before the 301. and the black numbers are today rankings.
On the right side is the newly registered domain. It doesn't rank for anything until today.
Hope it's clear now.
(I have no screenshot of old domain before the day the rankings drop)

i made one of my site into httpS, so had to 301 the old one. It has been over 3 weeks now, the ranking has not come back yet to WHAT It was before. I have done all the correct steps in htaccess and google search console... still waiting

please keep us updated on your serp position

 

[bahus]

i made one of my site into httpS, so had to 301 the old one. It has been over 3 weeks now, the ranking has not come back yet to WHAT It was before. I have done all the correct steps in htaccess and google search console... still waiting

please keep us updated on your serp position

Don't know how things work now but when I switched from http to https a couple of years ago it took like 3, 4 days the most to get back the old ranking. Some keywords had improved but when everything was over most were back where they were before. I have noticed that nowadays google is much slower updating any change on a website. There are algos stack upon algos arguing with each other who is right who's wrong. I can't tell you how many times after updating a post I saw an improvement in ranking for the first couple of days until another algo came along and moved everything down. Then, a couple of weeks later the post was showing improved ranking as it should. So I'm not surprised that switching from http to https or doing legit redirects as the OP did take longer than it used to.

As for the OP, what he did given him facing potential DMCA for having a TM in his URL was a legit redirect, and that was the right thing to do. Better be safe than sorry and suck up the time how long it takes. This case study or whatever you call it should not be confused with buying an expired domain and doing redirects just to improve ranking. For the most part, that game is over unless someone is able to convince google algo that's a legit redirect. And dumping everything to a home page is not the way to do it.

 

[Mr Positive]

301 effects last for a while then they start tanking so I hope you’ll keep us updated after a month or two of your fresh rankings

 

[Ryan Guzman]

thank you so much, its very helpful

 

[mortalis]

301 effects last for a while then they start tanking so I hope you’ll keep us updated after a month or two of your fresh rankings

I've 301'd sites for years (for site rebranding purposes but also SEO purposes) but have never seen sites 'tank' after a while. Over the years I have seen some competitors change domains and 301 but they always regain their rankings within a few months and maintain them thereafter.

Do you have any insight into the conditions in which your 301s lost power? Redirects don't always work out (especially when simply used as a means to build authority) but it would not make sense for Google to significantly devalue legitimate 301 link equity after a period of time.

 

[nimdekvan]

I think you need to take the next step on setting up Google webmaster?
For example, adding a new domain name and speeding up the index.

I don't plan to put it on google webmaster for now.....not sure myself why tho.

i made one of my site into httpS, so had to 301 the old one. It has been over 3 weeks now, the ranking has not come back yet to WHAT It was before. I have done all the correct steps in htaccess and google search console... still waiting

please keep us updated on your serp position

This year I've changed some http to https and it takes exactly 30 days to get where the main keyword was. (yes I did record it)
Yes, I will update the ranking.

As for the OP, what he did given him facing potential DMCA for having a TM in his URL was a legit redirect, and that was the right thing to do. Better be safe than sorry and suck up the time how long it takes. This case study or whatever you call it should not be confused with buying an expired domain and doing redirects just to improve ranking.

^This

 

[nimdekvan]

A little update.
Google ranks my old site again.....and the new site almost ranks for nothing. wtf?

 

[praetserge]

I have to admit.. I did 301 redirect over a week ago myself and google is very slow nowadays... still shows some old and some new urls.
I don't even go into bing... haven't seen a single page from the new domain there and it's been over a week.