Redirect Aged Money Site to an EMD?

[xphase]

I have an aged PR2 Money site that was hit recently by the new Google algo changes..rankings have dropped drastically. This domain is a .COM, with the brand in the name, but other than that no relevant keywords.

In my portfolio I have a EMD .NET domain I snagged off of Godaddy Auctions that I haven't done anything with yet.

Would it be worth the trouble to copy over the content from my current money site and do a 301 to this EMD .net domain?

 

[pixelgrinder]

I cannot comment personally but I have heard 301 will also pass the penalty - which doesn't make complete sense as you could easily take down another site with a spammed site that was penalized and simply 301 to a competitor.

I say go for it, whats the worse that could happen?

 

[xphase]

Yeah I think I'm going to go ahead and do it. I'll post results here, if any.

 

[xphase]

In both of those cases did you redirect your old domain to one that was more of an "EMD"? I'm curious if the EMD will help boost the rankings right from the start.

 

[darkeagle]

MY EXPERIENCE

Case 1)

I had the same situation, i came across a post where it recommended doing 301 redirect. I did 301 redirect to another site. Two days later, i got back to first page with the new site. I remained there for 4 to 5 days and then it dropped to nowhere.

Same thing happened to one of my sites and the new domain was an EMD.

 

[ronmojohny]

That's a good idea, except for copying the content from your old domain to the new one Panda is all about content, so if you copy it, you could get the same penalty on the new domain.

 

[tooled]

That's a good idea, except for copying the content from your old domain to the new one Panda is all about content, so if you copy it, you could get the same penalty on the new domain.

Not if he tells the search engines the page moved permanently, ie redirect 301.

Also, don't forget to use the "Change of Address" feature on google webmasters, OP. This step is VERY IMPORTANT.

Check out both links:

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=83106
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=83105

I did that (redirected an emd with hyphens to an emd without hyphens) and had no problems. The site is still in top 5 now and the change was made 2 years ago.

I'm pretty confident that if you first change the address in the google webmasters then redirect your old domain to the new one with a 301 you will get no penalties.