Should I Move my Site to a New Domain Name

by goodfella22

Posted: 11 years ago 19 replies

I have an exact match domain site that was created about 2 months ago. It was created just before the penguin 2.0 update and throughout the update it was ranking in the 2nd position for its targeted keyword.

However in the first couple of days of June the rankings tanked and the site went down from position 2 to 200+. The site had really valuable content and since it was a low comp niche I'm positive my site had far more quality information than the sites ranking in the top 10

Here's where it kinda gets interesting. Since the site was new it didn't really have much of a chance to grow before it was penalized (as though it seems). Seems as though it was caught in the crossfire of the penguin update before it really had time to develop.

At the time the site had around 4-5 articles but I've grown that to 10-15 in the last few weeks. I've also done some moderate link building. It sits in mid 150 range right now for the primary keyword and been there for almost 4 weeks.

Do you think the site was just caught in the crossfire of pengiun 2.0 and its better to move on to a new domain or should i continue to try to get the original site back up through quality link building and quality content?

Appreciate any responses

#domain #move #penalty #penguin #site

DouglasP

11 years ago

If you sure your old website penalized by google, then, stop doing link building for the old website.

Do not move the contents to the new domain. If you want to do new website SEO, the contents must be unique and new. Contents from old website will get penalized by google too.

Thanks
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NewbieLifer 11 years ago

I had the same thing happen to me. I am curious to hear what people have to say. Thanks for posting this.
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Bambu

11 years ago

Originally Posted by DouglasP

That being said, are you sure the new site is penalized? What does your backlink profile look like? What types of links have you built? What is the anchor text % for your target keywords for each page?

If the domain is new, it could've been enjoying a honeymoon period while Google determined the how visitors took to your content before send it to its current rankings, which are a true reflection of its SERPs.

Thanks
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goodfella22 11 years ago

I haven't done barely any link building besides a couple social bookmarks, blog comments and web 2.0s probably in total around 20 links.
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chrisv24

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Bambu

Don't listen to this poster. He is incorrect. If you take down the current domain, you can reuse the content on a new domain. I have done this dozens of times with my churn and burn projects and each time the new site ranks just fine.

That being said, are you sure the new site is penalized? What does your backlink profile look like? What types of links have you built? What is the anchor text % for your target keywords for each page?

If the domain is new, it could've been enjoying a honeymoon period while Google determined the how visitors took to your content before send it to its current rankings, which are a true reflection of its SERPs.

Bambu is right, I changed domain name and pulled over 200 pages of content over and haven't had a problem. Sometimes starting from scratch with a new domain is the best option and you can learn from your mistakes.

Thanks

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fastservicespk 11 years ago

I think you should develop new content to the new website and send google a request to review your site once again on google webmaster tool.
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euraffiliates 11 years ago

Are you sure Google has penalized your site? It can be for other reasons too. I am not a SEO master, but trying to analyze with logic.

There is a possibility that as per new penguin algorithm your site ranks genuinely 200+. May be, pre-penguin Google algorithm use to give too much importance on exact domain name match and now it does not. But your links and contents are still good, but not enough good to rank you at #2.

So in such a case, if you move your domain, you will lose current Google credibility which is no good.

So I will suggest you to look into penguin algorithm more closely and try to identify the genuine reason to be penalized (for duplicate content, bad linking technique etc). If you find something to be penalized then only create a new site on new domain with new content. Otherwise improve your existing site as per new google algorithm.

Can anyone tell the best document link for knowing the google penguin 2.0 ? I am getting interested in the subject.
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- goodfella22 11 years ago
  
  seo moz has a post on the penguin 2.0 multi update roll out and its specifically discusses keywords in the domain
  
  Early Look at Google's June 25 Algo Update - Moz
  
  Thanks
  
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frank07 11 years ago

I have been blogging for the pass seven years now. I have also experienced the thing that you have wrote which is being penalized by Google. Actually, the thought of being penalized might not be actually being penalized. Google only penalize blogs which are flag by other readers or visitors that have read your article and found that its inappropriate or offensive.
Maybe what you are referring to is falling down from the thread or loosing a substantial page rank. I would advice not to transfer what you have written but continue to write good, unique articles, bookmark, use s.e.o.. By doing this you will regain what you have lost.
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jimmyvanilla 11 years ago

Certainly sounds like Penguin was the culprit, but my understanding of Penguin 2.0 was that it was an update primarily aimed at altering the way the algorithm considered a site's link profile. If your content is great then keep building it on the same site and also go out and build some relationships with some other webmasters in your niche and offer to write some great content for them in exchange for some guest posting links. 2 months isn't much of a life for a site to be considered to have any kind of authority. It will take you time to earn that.
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PerformanceMan 11 years ago

Sounds like traffic theft.
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chawk 11 years ago

same thing happened to me, i tried to work on quality after the hit but I was never able to get a fraction of the rankings or traffic back. I made a decent chunk of change in a few months, but four months after the penalty and no results I just gave up on the site.
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marievvv 11 years ago

It looks like your content is responsible for the fall.

My experience: you can't fool Google. If you switch domain name. Googlebot will find it out one day or another.

Check if your issue is not related to
- Outgoing paid links. think about doing nofollow links.
- Link schemes (lots of links all together, it can look like a list of links)

Check your logs. See whether there is an issue with googlebot visiting your pages. Without knowing it you may have 500 errors, 404 errors... You may have 301 redirect loop.

Who knows !
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- henriduf 11 years ago
  
  Never forget that ALL automated penalty from Google can be lifted against a particular domain name.
  
  Thanks
  
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goodfella22 11 years ago

after much thought I have decided to change domains because its a .net as of now and I'll be switching to a .com brand able domain to grow the site into an authority site. I've moved up 100 positions to spot 50 but I'm still going to switch and do a 301 redirect. It's still a young site with around 15-20 pages of unique content so I don't think it'll be much of a problem and its better to do it early than later down the road. Will keep you posted on what happens
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- 1 reply
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- Mindpunisher 10 years ago
  
  I had a similat problem with a new site that got hit in the last update. I moved it to a new domain about five weeks ago. The articles don't show up in copyscape. If I type a sentence into google it shows up with quotes but not without.
  
  It doesn't show up in searches for any keywords but it does for site:domain and inurl:domain?
  
  Is there any chance of this showing up in the serps or is it doomed?
  
  I can't see anything wrong with the content. I was using UAW for links which I know got hit bad on last update..
  
  Thanks
  
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yukon Banned 10 years ago
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- 1 reply
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- nik0 Banned 10 years ago
  
  It's more likely a Panda penalty then a Penguin.
  
  Keep adding content, wait some time and good chance it comes back, unless it's some over monetized affiliate site, in that case under monetize it.
  
  Thanks
  
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hostdare 10 years ago

Try to update the content which would fresh and get quality backlinks from EDU and Gov sites ,they are highly trusted sites in eye of Google.There is no need for new domain
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Should I Move my Site to a New Domain Name

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