Rebranding a Website to a new Domain Name
-
Hi All,
I'm looking to rebrand my current website to a new domain name.
In short the current website has out grown it's potential. The domain name is not memorable nor is it attracting a wider audience.
I will create my new website and 301 redirect the old website to the new, hence pass SEO value.Google Places
Having spoken to Google they tell me that I can simply change the URL in Google Places to the new URL.Articles on my current website
I have a number of rich content articles on my current website, can I simply create my new website and copy & paste these previously written articles?Google+, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
What should I do for accounts associated with the current website?Any other useful information would be much appreciated.
Regards Mark
-
If you do have links sending traffic, those should be the first to update to avoid the slight but unnecessary burden and delay of a redirect. For Google, though, it doesn't really matter. As long as you 301 the whole site correctly to new URLs and change the address in Webmaster Tools, there will be no additional load time.
It's true that you want to avoid big .htaccess files, redirect chains, and inefficient redirects, but that's a rule for live sites. For example, if you were wanting to maintain the domain but move the entire category around, you wouldn't want to add 3000 lines to .htaccess. You should still write a rule rather than going line by line, but it doesn't really matter if it's on an old site that's moving. Search engines will only have to access it once per bot before they get the message and start crawling the new site.
In any case, redirects from the old site to the new won't impact load time unless the redirect is happening all the time, which should never be the case in a site migration. Do make sure to get the right redirect rule and check that it's working, especially on your most-trafficked pages.
-
Where possible it's best to group your URLs with pattern matching. If you're only changing the domain name and no other aspect of the URLs you should be able to handle all redirects with one line of code. This is linked in the guide I posted: www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php - scroll down for htaccess (but double check that's the correct formatting for page-to-page redirects).
-
Hi Ruben and Alex,
Many thanks for the great advice.
I'll be making a strong coffee and reading your article very shortly! ... Thanks Alex for the link.I have one question that comes to mind.
You redirect many urls via your .htaccess file.
Your .htaccess file growns in size.
Search engines take considerably longer to read and process this information.Surely the read + process overhead would be classed as poor site speed and therefore subject to some form of penality by the gods of Google?
Regards Mark
-
For when you launch the new website, Google have a change of address tool:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/83106?hl=enAs mentioned, 301 redirecting the exact old page to the exact same new page is the most important step. Plan ahead and map out your 301 redirects. You want to be sure of what's happening when the domain is transferred to give your rankings and traffic the best chance of remaining intact (or even increasing, which I've seen with some website redesigns).
I think you can change your Twitter handle more than once. If you have a good existing following I'd recommend updating your existing profile to the new handle, and (if possible) re-registering the old Twitter handle at another account - linking in the bio to your new Twitter account. That'll make sure you retain some of the link authority your current Twitter profile has built up and ensure people can still find you through any old links. I think custom Facebook URLs can be changed once.
I actually wrote a site migration guide last week, there should be a few points in there you'll find useful: insideonline.co.uk/website-migration-guide/
-
Moz actually wrote a detailed post about their transition (your probably already read it, but in case not, it's easy to find). Also, just because you 301 the exact page, does not necessarily mean you will rank as highly with the new page as you did the old ones...at least not in the beginning, that's for sure.
Best,
Ruben
-
Hi,
Thank you for your response.
I'm glad to see that you can simply 301 the exact old page to the exact new page.My fears were that all the hard work and cost associated to creating these feature rich articles would be wasted.
I suppose this is exactly how large organisations would tackle such a move. To mention an example SEOMOZ to MOZ.I would appreciate any further information from anybody who has experienced such a move and how they carried out the migration. Additionally and issues and drop in traffic resulting to a new domain name move.
Thanks in advance
Mark
-
Hi,
If you copy and paste the article content, make sure you 301 the exact old page to the exact new page.
For your social sites, you could mention that you are moving to a new brand name soon and then the change over will be expected. For Google+ if you have already used a custom URL you currently can't change it (as far as I know) so you would be stuck with the old brand name.
Hope that helps.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Can I have multiple GeoShape Schema for one page on one domain?
Hi Mozers, I'm working on some Schema for a client of mine, but whilst doing the research on GeoShapes with my developer, we came across a potential issue with this particular mark-up. My client is B2C business, operating in numerous places across the UK. I want to use the Circle property from GeoShape to draw out multiple circles across the UK, but am I able to do this? From looking at some other websites, most seem to just have one GeoShape. Can I have multiple on the same page and same domain? Thanks! Virginia
Local Website Optimization | | Virginia-Girtz0 -
Breaking through strong competition domains
We are trying to rank this domain: https://citychurchbloomington.org/ for this phrase churches in bloomington in. We recently had updated our domain name from citychurchfamily.org to citychurchbloomington.org because 1) it made sense for the organization, the end-user searching, and to help our rankings. Currently we are at position #4 on page 1 but have three sites ahead of us: churchfinder - in the last year this site came out of nowhere and slowly made its way up to the top spot high rock - this church had held spot #1 for many years and we've struggled to challenge it's place on the search results and are somewhat unclear why sherwood oaks - this site had been in spot #2 for many years and at times we've been able to challenge it's position but its held fairly tightly at spot #2 in the past, #3 since churchfinder rose up in the last year We've done competitive research and made some changes to our meta title, description, and h1 tag on our site but we're looking to make our next move to try and break into this top tier of results. I'm asking the community here for any insight/suggestions into what kind of move we should be exploring or making at this stage to move up. Sincerely, Andrew
Local Website Optimization | | a_toohill0 -
New Domain Link Building Order - When to 301 Redirect?
Hello Everyone - I am trying to lock down the best Local SEO and link acquisition order for 1 1/2 month old Domain. The Domain is clean - No History - Registered in WMT's on January 20th It's a service franchise website consolidating about 5 independent locations into a single branded site. The each location now has it's own location page on the new site: www.examplesite.com/Location-1 I'm considering the best timing to add 301's to the current Locations individual websites, to the locations pages on the new site.Some of which are currently ranked well (position 2) for one of their primary commercial terms. www.individuallocationsite.com ---> www.examplesite.com/Location-1 I don't want to lose that ranking, but will need to do the 301 redirect at some point. Should I - A.) Complete all of the Citation Work, Natural Profiles, Blog Posts...etc FIRST and let the new website age before 301'ing the locations? Giving it the best chance to have no interruption in those rankings? B:) 301 All the properties into the new website first and start all of the other Local SEO work second? C:) Something else? Thanks in Advance
Local Website Optimization | | CRO_first0 -
Need Help: Trouble With Website and Analytics
Hey all, I have a client who I have been having the WORST time getting traffic and ranked for relevant keywords. I've tried so many things and have yet to see much progress after about 9 months. Site is mgmcdallas.com. I realized something REALLYY weird with this site a couple weeks ago. The business has a Dallas, TX address and really only services the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area. They recently started getting some of referral traffic from yelp.com/biz_redir. Weirdly, they've also been getting more sales calls and more salespeople filling out their contact form. Take January for example, they had 164 sessions and 119 of those were from this yelp referral. They DON'T advertise with Yelp, or get traffic from Yelp anywhere in Texas. You can see from below screenshot that they are all coming from California. analytics I've had our <acronym title="Search Engine Optimization">SEO</acronym> and developer look into and we can't figure out what's happening. Any thoughts? iubnZdu
Local Website Optimization | | BWrightTLM0 -
Draft of my new responsive website redesign any opinions?
After a couple of years of talking about having a redesign of my website I finally taken the plunge and I'm paying for responsive design version. Before they go fully into the redesign I thought I would try to get some feedback on whether the initial look and functionality looks good or not. My old website is a very basic Dreamweaver website constructed by myself and because there's only 12 holiday properties on this holiday letting website it has done the job, but you have to scroll down to see the pictures and read the information. At the end of the day I'm certainly not a professional web designer I'm fully aware. With the new very first draft of the responsive design I've asked for functionality where clicking on the property allows you to check out the photographs and information without scrolling. This is the very first stage of a redesign any opinions regarding functionality and initial look would be very gratefully received. New draft website http://www.endeavourcottage.co.uk/newsite/ Old website http://www.endeavourcottage.co.uk/
Local Website Optimization | | WhitbyHolidayCottages2 -
Whats in a domain name (tld)
So we are setting up a new site for a Business Improvement District (BID) for our local town. So initially we would name the new site TownNameBID.co.uk (or .com) . However with the new domain tld out we are thinking of getting TownName.BID using the new BID tld. .BID is meant to be reserved for sites such as auction sites, however this will actually be more of a community support site. I would have thought that technically it should not really make much difference particularly once all the appropriate Local Business is placed on the site. But what is the possibility that by search engines it may perceive this a an auction site as opposed to a community site. as well as technical issues are there any anecdotal issues where the wrong tld may put people off. Thoughts
Local Website Optimization | | smartcow0 -
How slow can a website be, but still be ok for visitors and seo?
Hello to all, my site http://www.allspecialtybuildings.com is a barn construction site. Our visitors are usually local. I am worried about page speed. I have been using Google Page Insight, and Gtmetrix. Although I cannot figure out browser leveraging, I have a 79 / 93 google score and for gtmetrix 98/87 score. Load times vary between 2.13 secs to 2.54 secs What is acceptable? I want to make sure I get Google love for a decent page speed, but for me these times are great. Bad times are like 7 seconds and higher. I have thought about a CDN, yet I have read horror stories too. I have ZERO idea of how to use a CDN, or if I need it. I just want a fast site that is both user and Google speed friendly. So my question is, what is a slow speed for a website? Is under 3 seconds considered ok? or bad for seo? But any advice is greatly appreciated.
Local Website Optimization | | asbchris0 -
How Best to do implement a Branch Locator for a Website with invididual location category pages
Hi All, We have an ecommerce Website with multiple locations for our stores and we currently display separate location specific pages for the different categories and sub categories. This has helped us previously to rank well for local search in each of the areas we have a store but over the last few months since humingbird, our local rankings on some things have dip a little . We want to implement a branch locator of some description to improve the user experience. From looking at other websites with branch locators, they tend to a separate button/page with which you can search for a branch etc. However, they don't have location specific pages. My query is should I do it so if a user comes in on a specific category location page and follows it through to product page , then to have a tab on the product page displaying the local branch from which he can come in. My thinking here is that , is that it would help confirm my local citations and help improve local rankings. Or Should the local branch be displayed on the local category pages instead or as well ?. If a user comes in from the homepage or not on a specific location page, then the branch locator will allow them to search for a specific branch. Should I also put in a branch locator as a separate page or can It be in more places. I don't want to damage anything which may have an effect on rankings due to citations and NAP on the location specific pages. Any advice or good examples to look at would be greatly appreciated thanks Sarah.
Local Website Optimization | | SarahCollins1