301 New domain

Cache Money

Cache Money

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Hey guys

I've got a site I've been working on for the last year or so.

I've come across a much better domain with a keyword that relates better and I am keen to move the entire site over.

New domain was registered a couple of a days ago by me.

When a full 301 is done, does it hurt rankings? Does Google see that it's moved over and assign the same level of trust / authority?

Thanks
 
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You might lose some link juice and time along the way.

Unless it's completely critical, I wouldn't be moving a year old site whatsoever.

However, it is a viable approach and you shouldn't fuck it up much. Just make sure you are redirecting the domain page by page and retaining the URL structure and not just kamikaze homepage 301 Geronimo.
 
Your rankings will go down initially, but should go back up if everything is done correctly.

Make sure to 301 each post, like this:
Olddomain.com/bluefart > newdomain.com/bluefart
Olddomain.com/cornbread > newdomain.com/cornbread

So don't just 301 the whole domain to the homepage.

Some say that it's also efficient to use Google Webmaster to inform Google that the domain has changed. I changed domain about 2-3 month ago, without doing anything in Webmaster, and my rankings are now back in place and for some keywords even better than on my old domain.

But be prepared that your rankings might dip for a few weeks.

I have a competitor who changed domain a few months ago, and it seems his rankings decreased a little bit after that.
 
It works pretty good, if you redirect properly and will pass link power(not 100%) and visitors to site. Starting there will fluctuate in rank, later you will see improvements.
 
The 301 works.... for a few months. Then your competitors quickly outrank you and it's game over, unless you combine it with lots of good link building.
 
I have seen time and time again new sites in my niche rank fast with heavy 301'ing. They will get above me in search results for a month or two but then they fall back to the second page as fast as they ranked up. Doesn't help that their content is outsourced crap either. Probably huge bounce rates.
 
Nargil said:
You might lose some link juice and time along the way.

Unless it's completely critical, I wouldn't be moving a year old site whatsoever.

However, it is a viable approach and you shouldn't fuck it up much. Just make sure you are redirecting the domain page by page and retaining the URL structure and not just kamikaze homepage 301 Geronimo.
Click to expand...

Thank you for this.

Why should I keep the link structure - currently each of my URLs have a certain word to do with the industry that's a key aspect of it, let's say it's "services"

My current old domain doesn't have the word "service" in it.

New domain has word "service".

Old pages could be something like:

/book-service

On the new domain, I was hoping to change this to just

/book

Make sense?

Zbigniew said:
Your rankings will go down initially, but should go back up if everything is done correctly.

Make sure to 301 each post, like this:
Olddomain.com/bluefart > newdomain.com/bluefart
Olddomain.com/cornbread > newdomain.com/cornbread

So don't just 301 the whole domain to the homepage.

Some say that it's also efficient to use Google Webmaster to inform Google that the domain has changed. I changed domain about 2-3 month ago, without doing anything in Webmaster, and my rankings are now back in place and for some keywords even better than on my old domain.

But be prepared that your rankings might dip for a few weeks.

I have a competitor who changed domain a few months ago, and it seems his rankings decreased a little bit after that.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your insight.

I'd also want to change the content slightly as currently the on-page is not amazing, this should be fine too right?

Should I make all my on-page changes to my current domain, wait a week and then do the 301s to each page?
 
Cache Money said:
Thank you for this.

Why should I keep the link structure - currently each of my URLs have a certain word to do with the industry that's a key aspect of it, let's say it's "services"

My current old domain doesn't have the word "service" in it.

New domain has word "service".

Old pages could be something like:

/book-service

On the new domain, I was hoping to change this to just

/book

Make sense?



Thank you for your insight.

I'd also want to change the content slightly as currently the on-page is not amazing, this should be fine too right?

Should I make all my on-page changes to my current domain, wait a week and then do the 301s to each page?
Click to expand...

Retain link structure = Exactly what @Zbigniew told you to do.

You can edit the content slightly, that really isn't a problem.

It doesn't really matter where you do the changes imo, but in order not to confuse Google (I am giving it too much credit here I guess), edit it on your old site, let the content reindex and then progress with redirects.
 
Is it white hat?

If so, then move it on google search console.

301 the whole domain, exact same URLs.

Shouldn't hurt if you do it right.
 
bartosimpsonio said:
Is it white hat?

If so, then move it on google search console.

301 the whole domain, exact same URLs.

Shouldn't hurt if you do it right.
Click to expand...

Yes all white hat. I will take a look into this thanks.
 
bartosimpsonio said:
Then just do it the WH way. Search for "how to move a site". There's 100% clean white hat instructions for that.
Click to expand...

Will do.

Anyone know what happens to the old 301 site? How long does it need to stay as a 301 before it's not needed?
 
Zbigniew said:
Your rankings will go down initially, but should go back up if everything is done correctly.

Make sure to 301 each post, like this:
Olddomain.com/bluefart > newdomain.com/bluefart
Olddomain.com/cornbread > newdomain.com/cornbread

So don't just 301 the whole domain to the homepage.

Some say that it's also efficient to use Google Webmaster to inform Google that the domain has changed. I changed domain about 2-3 month ago, without doing anything in Webmaster, and my rankings are now back in place and for some keywords even better than on my old domain.

But be prepared that your rankings might dip for a few weeks.

I have a competitor who changed domain a few months ago, and it seems his rankings decreased a little bit after that.
Click to expand...

Did it take 2-3 months for the ranking to come back?

It's been a month since I changed it, but I haven't returned to my old ranking yet.
old : rank3
now : rank30
 
hwaback said:
Did it take 2-3 months for the ranking to come back?

It's been a month since I changed it, but I haven't returned to my old ranking yet.
old : rank3
now : rank30
Click to expand...
Yes, for sure. I don't even know how quickly it went, maybe 1-2 weeks. I was surprised.
 
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