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Thinking about changing domain name - how bad is it going to be?

by Manda
9 replies
Hi all,

I'd appreciate some advice on changing a domain name. The site is a WP blog on an add on domain and would stay the same except for being on a different add on domain. The home page has PR 2.

Currently there are not a lot of links to the site and I can redirect the current domain to the new one but I have no idea what the impact/consequences will be.

Please tell me about your experience doing this before I get myself in trouble.

Thanks
Manda
#bad #changing #domain #domain name change #thinking
  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    If you use a 301 redirect the search engines will supposedly treat it a permanent change and the old will carry over to the new. I say "supposedly" because I've never changed a site from one domain name to another, so I'm not advising from experience, but from theory.
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  • Profile picture of the author NikkiG
    Yeah, theory might differ from reality here. Sounds like there's some risk involved would like to know what results people have had doing this.

    Seems like something I'd do as a last resort.

    So, why the move?
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  • Profile picture of the author Anon7
    A few years ago I changed my blog domain. In other cases, I'd used 301 redirects, but in the case of my blog, I kept the old domain active... Then in my last post on the old domain, I gave a short post stating that I had moved my (Insert hyperlinked keywords here) blog to this address.

    I was at about the same level that you are now with yours regarding backlinks & pr2. I had no I'll effects at all and was back up in the SEs fairly quickly. Partially from the backlink and posting everyday (or at least close to it) on the new domain, which will certainly help too.

    -Jack
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  • Profile picture of the author affilorama-portal
    If you will have exactly the same content in your new domain then you should not lose any rankings. You will need to tell google that you are moving your site to a new domain. You can do that through webmaster tools. And do 301 redirects for each of your pages.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mohsin Rasool
    Hi Manda,

    Have a look at this page, see what Google has to say about this matter:
    Telling Google about your domain change - Webmaster Tools Help

    Regards,
    Mohsin
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  • Profile picture of the author Manda
    Thanks for your responses and advice - I'll do some more research into 301 redirects.

    The reason for changing is that this was my first site and in hindsight I didn't choose the best domain from either a reader or SEO point of view. It also doesn't fit well with my long term business strategy which didn't exist at the time the site was created (the site is to do with offline consulting - not IM)
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  • Profile picture of the author gskesavan
    Doing a 301 redirect is the wisest choice I'd say. That way, you will not lose the traffic that you're already receiving. The rankings may hurt a little but I can't tell you about it for sure as I haven't tried it.

    Cheers, let me know whatever happens.
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  • Profile picture of the author yankche
    Super cool! cuz i just met the same problem....Thank you Rasool i love this forum!!
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  • Profile picture of the author yankche
    Ho One thing here still worrying me!!! after changing domain name... Do the previous points and rankings change at the same time ??
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