What's the SEO risk for changing a domain name of a site?

15 years ago

first question is,why even bother changing it.

oh, brandable... k... well, erm... have the old pages re-directed, u may experience some loss of rankings though.

personally, I would leave it as is, and re-seo the new brandable site.... and edit old one with references to new site.

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mloveridge17

15 years ago

I tend to agree. What's the point? If you're getting good page rankings, why not keep it up?

Ultimately, if you choose to change your domain name, you will lose your page rankings unless you use a ton of 301 redirects (which Google doesn't seem to mind at all). But as long as you continue to post good content on the new domain, you will easily get that back, so it will be a short-term thing. So, you have to ask yourself if it is worth the short-term loss for the long-term gain.

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TimPhelan

15 years ago

The second domain is about 1/3 the length as the current and much easier to remember. More brandable. This is an offline business in the construction industry so I can see why the owner wants to change the domain. My first thought was not to mess with the domain but I do see why he would want to change it.

Regarding the 301 redirects, what about using an Apache mod_rewrite directives so that you don't actually have to place the 301 redirect code into each page?

Originally Posted by mloveridge17

I tend to agree. What's the point? If you're getting good page rankings, why not keep it up?

Ultimately, if you choose to change your domain name, you will lose your page rankings unless you use a ton of 301 redirects (which Google doesn't seem to mind at all). But as long as you continue to post good content on the new domain, you will easily get that back, so it will be a short-term thing. So, you have to ask yourself if it is worth the short-term loss for the long-term gain.

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MarQueteer 15 years ago

Originally Posted by TimPhelan

Regarding the 301 redirects, what about using an Apache mod_rewrite directives so that you don't actually have to place the 301 redirect code into each page?

That's the best and professional way to do it.
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Dano77

15 years ago

I know this post is a bit old.. but it's fact...

Exact Match Domain Names in Google : SEO Book.com

Google values the domain keyword strategy.. Changing the domain would be dumb, but re-directing a simpler name and gradually shifting is no biggy.

I helped with a 3 year shift from arac.com to advantage.com for the major car rental company and that went smoothly.

Dan

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uvmemike

15 years ago

I have just re-directed my domain using 301 re-direct. All was ok for about a week but now we have lost our rankings in Google. Is this just a temporary thing or do I have to start SEO all over again for the new domain.

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mloveridge17

15 years ago

Originally Posted by uvmemike

I have just re-directed my domain using 301 re-direct. All was ok for about a week but now we have lost our rankings in Google. Is this just a temporary thing or do I have to start SEO all over again for the new domain.

Without knowing all the details, it is difficult to determine exactly what is causing the sudden loss in rankings. It might be permanent or it might be part of a Google "Dance" where they shift up the search results as a way of filtering out some of the sites that shouldn't be there. If it is a Google Dance, your site will come back on its own in a couple weeks (assuming it was ranked well because it met Google's criteria).

If it isn't part of the dance, you'll just have to start doing the SEO thing again. Again, without knowing the details, my first guess would be that even with 301's, you lost a lot of back-links when you switched domains because they were pointed to the old domain. A strong link-building campaign should help regain your prior status.

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GB2008

15 years ago

I just saw a similar thing using 301 redirects. I had about 300 external links, wanted to consolidate that into my main domain name but seems like I lost the lot, even though all the pages got their 301 redirects set up properly. No big deal - just a bit of wasted effort is all...

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mloveridge17

15 years ago

yeah, Google wants you to believe that 301 redirects are ok. But I don't think they work on back-links. So, even though all your on-page SEO strategies are still spot-on, your off-site stuff all breaks. The good news is that the off-site stuff can be rebuilt over time, so you should be able to regain your ranking.

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GB2008

15 years ago

Right - one of those "wish I'd known" moments

- no problem, I've already gained my links back and more, but as you said, I only went through the 301 thing because Google said it was a good idea. Don't believe everything you read on the internet...

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Gary Bailey

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mloveridge17 15 years ago

Originally Posted by GB2008

Don't believe everything you read on the internet...

...aww c'mon, you mean to tell me that people aren't 100% honest, all-the-time on the Interweb?
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GB2008

15 years ago

Hard to believe - I know!!

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Gary Bailey

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VizeBoogie

15 years ago

i recently had a client come to me after a url name change advised by another agency. not only did they drop a keyword in the url, but they lost all the credit for the years they'd had the url.

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mloveridge17

15 years ago

Originally Posted by VizeBoogie

i recently had a client come to me after a url name change advised by another agency. not only did they drop a keyword in the url, but they lost all the credit for the years they'd had the url.

yeah, that's another aspect to consider. although Google doesn't admit it, my experience has shown that time in the index is a significant factor in the super-algorithm

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nicoletiern 15 years ago

Pretty useful to read all this, I thought it could be taking google some time to get the back links updated but that's unlikely
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tpw

15 years ago

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Use the old site to link to the new site, but leave the old site unchanged. Anything different, and you risk throwing away most of the value you currently have.

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What's the SEO risk for changing a domain name of a site?

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