Just Purchased a Domain

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12
I have been running this blog for about a year and a half. It has been very successful and is starting to make good money for a part time project. Plenty of traffic, building a decent sized list, have created my own products, all is well. But it is a hyphenated domain name.

Today I shelled out to purchase the domain name without the hyphen. I'm glad to have it because of the confusion the hyphen could cause, but I do rank very well in the search engines for over 100 keywords in my niche.

So the question is, what to do with it. Right now it is just redirecting to the old domain (literally just bought it). Is there value in transferring everything over to the new one and redirecting the old domain to that? Any other ideas, or just leave it like it is?
#search engine optimization #domain #purchased
  • Matt Cutts has said that you DO in fact lose a little bit of juice when you 301 redirect (which is what you're going to need to do if you switch).

    That said, if it were me, I would probably go ahead and do it. Think long term. If you take a small hit for some time, it's not going to be the end of the world.
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    • That's my thought, that in the long run have it will be better. Thanks!
  • Just make sure you research how to 301 redirect EVERYTHING in the proper way. You want to make sure you're losing as little as possible. (And you may not see any kind of real drop-off at all, of course.)
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    • Definitely will do so, thank you so much for your help!
  • Banned
    I'm from the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school. I wouldn't mess with a site that had good traffic, good position in the serps for keywords and made an income.
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    • Banned
      Same here ... I wouldn't have any problem redirecting a newly registered domain-name to an existing one which is producing income, but I wouldn't fancy doing it the other way round.
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    • I completely agree with her. Since your blog visitors are not exactly
      have any trouble spelling the domain, you could just keep it the it is for now.

      Or better, try putting up a poll and ask for your readers what they'd
      want. Since the technical question has already been answered, they're
      the one who can help you decide...
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  • I'll cast a vote for Suzanne's suggestion, too.

    The new domain is simply insurance, your existing domain is the money maker.
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  • I guess the issue to me, and what I need to find out, is whether the name with the hyphen is established as a brand. If it is not, the name without the hyphen is better in the long run. If it is, well obviously I don't want to change it, just use a redirect.

    If this was just one of my sites with 5 articles pushing click bank products, I would not even think of changing the link with this kind of traffic. But this is my big one, and I believe that even with the popularity it has now, it is only getting started.

    Very appreciative of everyone's help!
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    Just Purchased a Domain

    I have been running this blog for about a year and a half. It has been very successful and is starting to make good money for a part time project. Plenty of traffic, building a decent sized list, have created my own products, all is well. But it is a hyphenated domain name. Today I shelled out to purchase the domain name without the hyphen. I'm glad to have it because of the confusion the hyphen could cause, but I do rank very well in the search engines for over 100 keywords in my niche.