Massive hit in Serps due to domain extension change?

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Alison29

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Hello,

Hopefully somebody can answer this question for me. I recently changed my domain from the dot com to co.uk extension. Put a 301 redirect in place...I lost a little ranking because of this but not huge.

Then, I emailed a lot of people asking if they could also update my links from the dot com to co.uk.
As more and more people have done this for me, my rankings for most of my keywords have fallen every day. It's like I'm almost back to where I was before the good quality links were built.

Is it just a case of waiting for Google to re-crawl the co.uk links, or should I be really worried?
 
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Since your website is new, it might just be a google dance. It's difficult to pin point the exact cause of it, maybe it takes time for google to trust the links.
 
My site isn't so new. It's about 10 months old now. Went live in April. I was top of page 2 for one of my main keywords...then ranks have been decreasing ever since people changed the extension for me.
 
It's still quite new and when you start getting new links, that's when google dance happens. I'm not sure whether that's the cause of your serp decreases though, and no-one can say for sure.

It could also be something to do with the algorithm of Google, but for some reason I still suspect it's just a dance.
 
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Thanks for your reply. So, are you saying that even though people have changed the dot com link over to the co.uk - Google will class these as 'new links'?
 
Alison29 said:
Thanks for your reply. So, are you saying that even though people have changed the dot com link over to the co.uk - Google will class these as 'new links'?
Click to expand...

Yes, these would be considered as new links since they are pointing to a different domain, no matter if its just the change in the extension.
 
Thanks...I didn't know this. I thought perhaps because I had the same domain, just different extension it wouldn't matter....Good to know.

I guess I just need to wait now until Google re-crawls those new links.
Cheers!
 
Need not to worry.

There was even no problem when they were pointing to .com domain, you'd have got domain trust factor for it's age. Link juice would also have passed as you were using 301 redirect. Now also no problem, wait for some days you'll get back to normal as it is a brand new domain.
 
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BusinessMagnet said:
Need not to worry.

There was even no problem when they were pointing to .com domain, you'd have got domain trust factor for it's age. Link juice would also have passed as you were using 301 redirect. Now also no problem, wait for some days you'll get back to normal as it is a brand new domain.
Click to expand...

Domain age\authority shouldn't pass through even with a permanent redirect.

I agree with the rest of what you're saying though, after it's recrawled it'll probably dance a bit and then settle back to where it was.
 
if you did a 301 i don't think there was a need to change backlinks. Your link juice reset except for the 301 traffic
 
HerpDerpSlerp said:
if you did a 301 i don't think there was a need to change backlinks. Your link juice reset except for the 301 traffic
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Of course! I even think that this backlinks change is a huge mistake, because in this way you build links to the newer domain and this is the only reason for google dance. If you check google's webmasters help you will see that 301 means nothing, but transferring on new domain to save and hold the SERP and link juice. In the way you do it you will lost! Think about - changing link's structure calls googe something like "I change the backlinks to increase my SERP" and it call it very vissible - this is something google must NOT know! I don't tell google is so smart, but just share my point!
 
You're going to have to just sit tight and wait it out. co.uk and .com are two completely different domains. Just like mysite.net and my site.com are completely different domains. You should have just held out for 301 to finish, it takes a few weeks to see all/most rankings and link juice transferred to new target. Now you have a brand new site with lots of new links coming from all the webmasters who have changed their links upon your request. So in essence a brand new site with a 301 from an old established site and new links coming from all over the place.... does this set up sound familiar? This is the cause of all your lost rank and dancing around. It will probably take considerable time to settle down. Nothing to do now besides resume your normal web activity as far as content growth and maybe social media engagement.
 
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SEO_Alchemy said:
You're going to have to just sit tight and wait it out. co.uk and .com are two completely different domains. Just like mysite.net and my site.com are completely different domains. You should have just held out for 301 to finish, it takes a few weeks to see all/most rankings and link juice transferred to new target. Now you have a brand new site with lots of new links coming from all the webmasters who have changed their links upon your request. So in essence a brand new site with a 301 from an old established site and new links coming from all over the place.... does this set up sound familiar? This is the cause of all your lost rank and dancing around. It will probably take considerable time to settle down. Nothing to do now besides resume your normal web activity as far as content growth and maybe social media engagement.
Click to expand...

At this point I don't even know if I'd gear social signals.

I know what you were intending to do OP, but Google probably won't realize it was in your best intentions to be legitimate. Hopefully if you wait it will pan out for the best from here.
 
@ Seo Alchemy. Sure does sound familiar....but think I've really f'ed things up now...those powerful links I had have been indexed but my site hasn't really improved on the rankings....I hope Google won't think I'm some stupid spammer now :(
 
I would say keep building links to the new domain while Google adjusts it's rankings. I transitioned a client once from a .com to a .ca and saw a drop in rankings even though there was a 301 done. During the next few weeks i just focused on created good links from .ca domains that were relevant, and was able to bring the rankings above what they initially were. Hang tight and build.
 
My old man says, do not fix what ain't broken, and I listen to him on this one 'coz that's the only sane advise he ever gave! Changing domain extension was bad decision and changing the links was worse. This action has shown Google that you, the site owner, somehow controlled the links and that they weren't natural! No wonder, you lost the rankings. Can't really say what you'll need to do now.
 
If the links stay on the .com trustrank will not be passed to the new domain... Or am I wrong? He will definitely take a hit for it being a new domain.
 
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