Changing domains. Any SEO tips?

~777~ · Jun 15, 2010

I have a client who wants to change his site from a .co.uk to a .com. he already has indexed pages on the .co.uk. I've deleted the sitemap from webmaster tools, and uploaded new one to the .com. Anything else I can do, apart from backlinks, to get the .com indexed faster and replacing the .co.uk pages?

niksanyl · Jun 15, 2010

Create a 301 redirect from the .uk site to the .com

Did you keep all the filenames the same?

redirect 301 / http://www.newsite.com/

The first "/" indicates that everything from the top level of the site down should be redirected. As long as you are using the same paths and filenames, then this option is a very simple way to perform site redirection in the situation where you have only changed your domain name.

Niksa

darkfury · Jun 15, 2010

In Googles Webmaster Tools, after verifying both domains you can perform a "Change of Address". This speeds the migration of PR over by a fair bit.

littleg2008 · Jun 15, 2010

My god, dont mind about the time it takes to index the new .com pages, you should worry about keeping all of your link juice and PR power.

As post above said, you should be replacing all your .co.uk pages with 301 redirects to the .com pages.

Doing this is your priority, not getting the new pages indexed.

bizroot · Jun 15, 2010

Yes if you want to keep link juice then you need to setup 301 redirect... You can easily set URL migration through .htaccess file...

ipopbb · Jun 15, 2010

Also... Maintain both URL structures and canonical tag the new domain URLs on every page... don't even think of dropping the old URL support until you get your quality backlinks converted to the new domain. Lots and lots quality of link building.

Then pray and sacrifice a goat... seems to me that 50% of the time stuff goes wrong, which is why it pays to do SEO architecture correctly from the start... there is no do-over.

niksanyl · Jun 15, 2010

ipopbb said:
Then pray and sacrifice a goat...

That's funny. I had Leslie Rohde do a site review for me one time and he said NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER change your url's. . . .

Niksa

summertime1 · Jun 15, 2010

ipopbb said:
Also... Maintain both URL structures and canonical tag the new domain URLs on every page... don't even think of dropping the old URL support until you get your quality backlinks converted to the new domain. Lots and lots quality of link building.

Then pray and sacrifice a goat... seems to me that 50% of the time stuff goes wrong, which is why it pays to do SEO architecture correctly from the start... there is no do-over.

Why not use 301 from every old page to the equivalent new? Just in case the old structure was crap (like example.com?cat=34&id=12.. doesn't have to be that bad, but you know what i mean)

ipopbb · Jun 15, 2010

Hirnhamster said:
Why not use 301 from every old page to the equivalent new? Just in case the old structure was crap (like example.com?cat=34&id=12.. doesn't have to be that bad, but you know what i mean)

301 was already suggested, I was just saying in addition...

You have to account for dupe content through many URLs... the penalties are just too high.

You want to correct your backlinks of value to get the new domain back up to snuff as painlessly as possible... there will be pain but have to try and minimize.

301 alone isn't enough unless you want to take some hits.

summertime1 · Jun 16, 2010

So what you are suggesting is to maintain the old urls as well and get the "power" by the canonical attribute? I must confess that I never had to do this kinda thing so far, but just from a logical point of view: 301 says "What you are looking for is one this page: ..."
canonical says "Hey, i wrote something that originates at this page: ..."

So the 301 case "should" get all the linkpower that the old url had while the canonical thing just gives you 1 quality backlink.

ipopbb · Jun 16, 2010

Hirnhamster said:
So what you are suggesting is to maintain the old urls as well and get the "power" by the canonical attribute? I must confess that I never had to do this kinda thing so far, but just from a logical point of view: 301 says "What you are looking for is one this page: ..."
canonical says "Hey, i wrote something that originates at this page: ..."

So the 301 case "should" get all the linkpower that the old url had while the canonical thing just gives you 1 quality backlink.

mo4damoney · Jun 16, 2010

I had this SAME issue this week. I was able to use a 301 redirect and it worked perfectly.

Changing domains. Any SEO tips?

~777~

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