Pros & Cons of Switching Your Main Domain to Mask Links & Combat EMDs
-
Hello Mozzers,
I'd love to receive some advice for a client of mine and insights you may have regarding pros and cons on changing your main domain to mask links. Within a competitive niche there are about 4 different sites that routinely rank 1-4. Our site crushes all three on just about all metrics except we have a high volume of nofollow links and our site remains at #4. Our site is much older so we have significantly more links than these smaller sites, including pre-penguin penalty spammy links (like blog comments that make up 50+ nofollow links from 1 comment per domain).
Obviously we are attempting to remove any toxic links and disavow, however the blog comment nofollow links skew our anchor text ratio pretty intensely and we are worried that we aren't going to make a dent in removing this type of links. Just disavowing them hasn't worked alone, so if we are unable to remove the bulk of these poor quality links (nofollow, off-topic anchor text, etc..) we are considering 301 redirecting the current domain to a new one. We've seen success with this in a couple of scenarios, but wanted to see other insights as to if masking links with a 301 could send fresh signals and positively effect rankings.
Also wanted to mention, 2 of the 3 competitors that outrank us have EMD's for the primary keywords.
Appreciate your time, insights, and advice on this matter.
-
I understand why you would think disavowing links would be time better spent, but any professional would tell you that anytime you add a disavow file to your site, you are essentially raising a red flag and giving Google the in to really inspect your profile. That can be extremely detrimental in most cases.
Links have age, just like domains. Fresh, new links will carry more weight than older spam links, especially if they are driving traffic to your site. I would spend my time building new links and not disavowing any links unless I am trying to remove a penalty. As I understand it, you have already been cleared of a Penguin penalty, so I don't think your time is best spent on disavow actions. However, there might be people in the community who disagree with that theory.
As far as the EMD goes, there are over 200 ranking factors. Although it might be easy to point to their domain and say that is why they out rank you, you can't really do that. As far as evening the field, you will want to get ahead of them, not just get on their level. I wouldn't go through the redirect process unless it was my last option or hope. Just because the other domain has been registered for the same amount of time, doesn't give it the same value of the domain you are using. There has been no traffic to that domain, nor has it been crawled in that time, unless you have two operating sites. The domain that has been registered and in use is the more valuable domain. Is it worth building up your domain authority from scratch?
The URL structure is not doubt important, but the focus should be on what follows the .com. Some other factors you should consider before you decide to 301 or disavow is general site structure and user generated content. Do you have a responsive design? How about any uniquely valuable content like customer reviews or comments? These are the easiest things to work on in order to build your domain authority and your trust signals.
By no means do I want to discredit your theory, however, I would encourage you to seek further research to really understand the cons of all of the disavow files and starting with a new domain.
-
Hey Monica,
Thanks so much for your response. Couple of things...
Building Quality Links vs. Removing Bad Links
We are definitely aren't moving away from building quality links. I'm just wondering if focusing more efforts on removing is going to be a better use of time as it seems like links are all about percentages. If I remove one bad blog comment link that results into 100+ links then it will build up the percentage of quality link our profile consists of.
EMDs
I mentioned EMDs earlier and in reality it's more of a PMD as they have a branded word + keyword within the domain, and this seems to work extremely well for them. We've considered 301ing to a domain that has the keyword within it, still branded but at least compares to the only thing they really have on us besides a cleaner link profile. When I say cleaner, I mean a lot smaller so the percentage of quality is there even though it is only like 10 links (which we also have).
301 to a new domain
I'm aware of 301 redirects juice etc.., however our "new" domain we've owned and registered just as long as our current domain so it has the age. It's just a little longer to include brand + keyword instead of just brand. Also, in this competitive niche (we're talking, $50+ a click on AdWords) the organic #1 has, literally, 0 links... They redirected their old domain to a new one which makes me believe "masking" old link profiles could be possible?
Food for thought, again thanks for your reply!
-
This is a tough situation to be in.
First, I would suggest adding some quality follow links before you disavow anymore of the no follow links. While these links are plentiful, they are no follow and serve only one purpose because of that, to bring traffic to your site. If these links are bringing traffic, it isn't worth getting rid if them. Often times there are negative consequences of having several disavow files with Google. I understand the initial appeal of disavowing those links, but in the long run, you won't have the outcome you are looking for. If at all possible, reach out to webmasters first, and ask them to remove links before you go through the disavow process.
The best thing you can do is get some quality, authoritative links to sites that have high DA. Youtube, Pinterest, Google Plus... Those are all reputable sites. You have to be careful with YouTube now though, make sure you embed videos with Http, not Https.
You also want to diversify your link profile to include links in related content. It is the harder way to build links, but it is worth it in the end. What you are suffering from now is the "easy come, easy go" link building strategy that flourished 5-6 years ago and has left many sites in limbo. The best way to even out your link profile is to build better links. Getting rid of all of the no follow links will not be as helpful as building fresh, quality links.
301 redirecting your site to a new domain will not help you because you will be redirecting all of your link juice, spammy links included. EMDs do not have the value they used to, your brand is far more important than your key terms nowadays. Plus, there is value in the age of your domain. Older domains carry higher authority. There is more value in the age of your domain than an EMD. I would put money on that
Whatever you decide to do, make sure that your next step is earning some fresh, quality links and start sending some social signals. Good luck!
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
-
Links Not Detected by MOZ, AHREFS, GSC-ARE THESE QUALITY LINKS?
Our SEO provider has been creating content (6 blog posts per month as well as building page write ups) and has been promoting that content. Several links per month have been created as a result of this effort. Many of the links have been from commercial real estate publications. I am concerned that the quality of these links is not high enough to improve our ranking. Most links do not appear on AHREFS, Google Search Console or MOZ. Is this a red flag that these links are weak? Ranking and traffic on the site have improved considerably since this provider began the project in April of 2019. They have been writing about 30 pages about New York City. commercial buildings each month in addition to 4 short blog posts and 2 extremely well researched and authoritative blog posts. My concern is that the links are not of sufficient quality to result increased ranking. That the improvement in ranking is solely due to the addition of new content rather than the creation of these links. Basically, that I am incurring the cost on an ongoing basis of an link building campaign with little to no benefit. That being the case, I would shift resources to content creation and increase and improve content rather than develop links with little value. A sample of links are below: Would greatly appreciate some feedback as to whether these are in fact helpful to the domain authority, reputation and ranking of our website. Thanks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kingalan1
Alan https://patch.com/new-york/bayside/bayside-queens-priciest-area-retail-office-space-study https://qns.com/story/2019/12/04/these-commercial-streets-in-queens-were-among-the-most-expensive-in-2019/ https://patch.com/new-york/brooklyn/flatbush-ave-priciest-retail-spot-outside-manhattan-study http://thejewishvoice.com/2019/12/07/nycs-most-expensive-commercial-streets-neighborhoods-in-2019-would-surprise-you/ https://atalyst.com/investment-banking-interview-metro-manhattan/0 -
Launching Brand New Subdomain To Outrank & Outperform Main Domain
Fellow Mozzers! I have a tricky problem that may or may not have a viable solution. It's one that our team are 100% pressing ahead with regardless & I wanted to canvass some opinion on what options I have. We have the Main Company Site which has been going for +15 years, has a DA of 58 and 63,000 links pointing at it. It currently ranks on page 1 for a number of our important keywords. However.... We are now launching a Subdomain, which will be something like marketing.maincompanysite.com which we now want to drive a lot more of our traffic to. In particular for items like new customer acquisition, product discovery etc. In fact we would actually rather the subdomain outrank our main site for branded queries. However the Main Site is still important for existing customers who login to our product and we don't want to do anything that will destabilize it's rankings too much. My questions are: Are there any strategies I can use to get a subdomain (with no links or history) outranking the main site in position 1 on Google? Main site should still rank in position 2! Any other tips to actively take legacy traffic from a main site onto a subdomain seamlessly. Should we just be 301 redirecting unnecessary pages on the old site to new and improved pages on the subdomain? There will still be a 100,000+ pages on the main site, lots of authority and traffic going through it. It's not becoming redundant. Thanks so much guys - hopefully I've explained that okay!!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MattStott40 -
Redirecting main www. subdomain to new domain. Can you then create a new subdomain on the old domain?
Hi there, The scenario is this: We have been working on a rebrand and have changed the company name So, we want to redirect www.old-name.com to www.new-name.com However, the parent company is retaining the old brand name for corporate purposes So, in an ideal world, we'd be able to keep www.old-name.com active - but clearly that would sacrifice all of the authority built up over the years, so we do have to redirect the main www. subdomain in it's entirity. However - one suggested solution is to redirect www.old-domain.com to www.new-domain.com... but then create a new corporate subdomain: for example, business.old-domain.com business.old-domain.com will not be competing with the new site on any service/product related terms; it will only need to appear in SERPs for the company name I'd appreciate some thoughts on this, as I've not done this before or found any examples of anyone that has. Is that a massive risk in terms of sending a confusing message to Google? Thanks for your help
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | edlondon0 -
Change domain whilst under a partial manual links penalty
Hi there We're currently under a manual penalty for some unnatural links to our domain and have been working on fixing that but had our first re-consideration request rejected so we're doing a second round of link removals The issue we have is that we were planning to change our domain before the SSL certificate expires in a couple of weeks and renew the certificate with the new domain but are unsure whether to stop working on the reconsideration request, change the domain and wait until the manual penalty moves to the new domain before continuing the link removal. Alternatively try and use the domain change to select which links are 301'd to the new site and leave behind the bad links in the hope that the manual penalty wouldn't be applied to the new domain Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ham19790 -
What To Do With Too Many Links?
We have four pages that have over 100 links (danger, danger from what I gather), but they're not spammy footer links. They are FAQ videos for our four main areas of practice. Does that make a difference? If not, should I just take half the questions on each page and make four additional pages? That strikes me as a worse UX, but I don't want to get penalized either. Thanks, Ruben
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Any good link buying companies ( http://www.text-link-ads.com )
Hi guys I have been passed this website: http://www.text-link-ads.com Has anyone ever used text-links ads before?? Can anyone please show me the way and suggest any really good lin buying companies? I am really fiding it hard to find good places to place inbound links into our website.. Thanks Gareth
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GAZ090 -
What are your thoughts on using Dripable, VitaRank, or similar service to build URL links too dilute link profile???
One of my sites has a very spamy link profile, top 20 anchors are money keywords. What are your thoughts on using Dripable, VitaRank, or similar service to help dilute the link profile by building links with URLs, Click Here, more Info, etc. I have been building URL links already, but due to the site age(over 12 years) the amount of exact match anchor text links is just very large and would take forever to get diluted.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 858-SEO0 -
Legit Domain Masking
I am working with a real estate client. They have one main site (ie. company.com) that contains all the info, then they have several name domains (ie. salesrepresentative.com) that are forwarding to the main site, but use domain masking to appear as if there is a separate site for each representative. My question is how can I make this legit in Google's eyes, or is this totally not advised?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ukao0