Unusual Link Building Situation - Advice Needed

[keynes]

Hey guys, long story short, the agency I work with just closed a nice contract last month. We're selling them a lot of services, SEO included.

The thing is, they want to change their website/domain name. The current site has a decent profile (Ahrefs DR11) but they want to rebrand, buy a new domain, and create a 301 redirect. This will only happen in about 2-3 months.

Question is, what should I do until then? Stop all SEO efforts? Feels like a waste to build links to the current site if it's going to be redirected.

I was thinking of building links to the new site, even if it only has a "coming soon" page right now. I'm talking about high-quality, manual outreach guest post links.

If we build links to the current site and do a redirect, how much link juice is going to transfer?

What's your take on the situation?

 

[LongToeNail]

I would keep building links to the original domain. 301 should pass at least 90% of the link juice to the new domain. Use the google webmaster tools to officially move the website to the new domain. The sooner you register the new domain the better, I would get it indexed asap with a coming soon page, or better yet a little relevant article.

 

[Mr Positive]

Stop for now and restart building when new site is live

 

[Zbigniew]

I would definitely not build any links to the current domain if it's gonna transfer in a few months time.

I wouldn't build links to the "coming soon" either. You'd want links to inner pages too, especially if the links are strong.

As I see it, no point in doing anything related to links now - unless you are going to build up a PBN or something. Maybe do outreach when it's one month left till' release of the new domain and use it as a pitch when contacting companies.

 

[Exitwound]

Just to add on what others have said. You can still do a lot of work without actually posting the link. Maybe you could stock up on content (minus actually posting it) in the meantime while you wait and then once the redirect is complete upload it.

 

[jamie3000]

I would just lay a solid foundation for when you are ready to build links to the new domain.

If they are genuinely white hat outreach links then you can spend the time building relationships and score some great links when ready.

 

[keynes]

I would keep building links to the original domain. 301 should pass at least 90% of the link juice to the new domain. Use the google webmaster tools to officially move the website to the new domain. The sooner you register the new domain the better, I would get it indexed asap with a coming soon page, or better yet a little relevant article.

Interesting angle. I wasn't aware that so much link juice passes from a redirect. Do you have some resources on this topic? I'd love to learn more about it.

 

[keynes]

Just to add on what others have said. You can still do a lot of work without actually posting the link. Maybe you could stock up on content (minus actually posting it) in the meantime while you wait and then once the redirect is complete upload it.

I was planning on that but I didn't think about the content yet. Good idea, I might start stacking on that.

I would just lay a solid foundation for when you are ready to build links to the new domain.

If they are genuinely white hat outreach links then you can spend the time building relationships and score some great links when ready.

I already have a good foundation of general/news sites from other clients. I think I'll start doing some outreach for niche-related ones now.

 

[keynes]

Stop for now and restart building when new site is live

Thank you, makes sense!

I would definitely not build any links to the current domain if it's gonna transfer in a few months time.

I think that's how I'm going to proceed, thanks a lot for the suggestion!

 

[AAW]

I would keep building links to the original domain. 301 should pass at least 90% of the link juice to the new domain. Use the google webmaster tools to officially move the website to the new domain. The sooner you register the new domain the better, I would get it indexed asap with a coming soon page, or better yet a little relevant article.

I agree on this as I personally had a 15 years old site that I had to redirect to a new domain, most links to old site stayed and passed the juice to new one and that in matter of weeks without me doing a thing. Of course all new backlinks are going to new domain.
I didn’t do the redirect myself and had to hire someone else as I’m not SEO expert (in learning stage) and the guy charged me an arm and leg to do it! Great reply from @LongToeNail

 

[AAW]

I should add the site did suffer after the redirect. But again I’m not an expert and I had to get Ahrefs myself and do most stuff myself since the SEO guy somehow messed up things when doing 301 redirect, may be intentionally so he can sell me his monthly service, but luckily I have a great friend who is an expert, he drowns out about the issues and we fixed them. I believe that metrics changed to worse for 6-8 weeks when the redirect happened but not so bad, so my advise to you is doing it right.
About building links to the new coming soon site: the way I see it based on my experience: it makes no sense as you do need a good site, good content, good site structure so new backlinks work better and natural. It makes no sense to send these links to a coming soon site with no single KW! It wouldn’t look natural. But again I’m no expert, I’m just talking from my own experience.

 

[LongToeNail]

Interesting angle. I wasn't aware that so much link juice passes from a redirect. Do you have some resources on this topic? I'd love to learn more about it.

It was just from my experience, even the age of the domain will pass through the 301. I had a 5 year old niche .com website that had a small amount of links, not much at all. I did a 301 to a brand new .co.uk domain - The new domain had the exact same brand name. I managed to get into the top 3 for a very decent keyword in about 4 months - I don't believe a brand new website could of done that for this keyword, so I believe the age of the .com 301 helped me a lot.

Personally I would get the new domain indexed asap, the sooner google knows about it the better. As long as you are not building more than 4 backlinks per 10 days then the new website should be ok with them (as long as they are very natural links, not keyword index page links for example)

 

[AAW]

It was just from my experience, even the age of the domain will pass through the 301. I had a 5 year old niche .com website that had a small amount of links, not much at all. I did a 301 to a brand new .co.uk domain - The new domain had the exact same brand name. I managed to get into the top 3 for a very decent keyword in about 4 months - I don't believe a brand new website could of done that for this keyword, so I believe the age of the .com 301 helped me a lot.

Personally I would get the new domain indexed asap, the sooner google knows about it the better. As long as you are not building more than 4 backlinks per 10 days then the new website should be ok with them (as long as they are very natural links, not keyword index page links for example)

@LongToeNail very interesting, I think I have same thing going on with 301 redirect, I wish there are more threads here about the 301
Question: do you ever stop redirecting the old site to new one? can I PM you if this does not violate the forum terms.
Following this thread as it is really important to see everyone experience and feedback on the 301

 

[LongToeNail]

@LongToeNail very interesting, I think I have same thing going on with 301 redirect, I wish there are more threads here about the 301
Question: do you ever stop redirecting the old site to new one? can I PM you if this does not violate the forum terms.
Following this thread as it is really important to see everyone experience and feedback on the 301

I would never take off the 301, make sure that the https version redirects too if your site was secure. I use cloudflare for my 301 so that I don't have to renew ssl certificates

sure pm me

 

[Nata Lee]

It's better to stop building links to current, because as you said it will be transferred to new.

 

[LegionPro]

1. Stop building links to the current site.
2. Add an article or two to the new domain so Google knows what your website is about upon your first indexing.
3. Slowly build links to new site (contextual)
4. do the 301 redirect.

 

[Elvlin]

wait for new site to released before building any new link.
in mean time you can laydown some groundwork so when the new site ready. you just need need to put the link.