Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Why is old site not being deindexed post-migration?
-
We recently migrated to a new domain (16 days ago), and the new domain is being indexed at a normal rate (2-3k pages per day). The issue is the old domain has not seen any drop in indexed pages. I was expecting a drop in # of indexed pages inversely related to the increase of indexed pages on the new site. Any advice?
-
Jarred,
Whenever you move to a new domain name Google will keep the old domain name indexed for up to a year (or longer!). It's just the way that Google does it, I suspect that it's because you may change your mind and go back to the old domain.
Having the old domain indexed in Google isn't a problem, as users should be redirected to the content on the new domain.
It will take up to a year for Google to stop indexing the old domain.
By the way, make sure you use the Google Change of Address Tool in Google Search Console, it will really help.
-
We did some 301 redirects in early February. There are still some pages on the old domain hanging in the SERPs - however, the 301s are sending the traffic to the right place.
The more powerful your domain, the longer it can take for the pages to drop from the SERPs, because you have a lot of spiders coming in through existing links. Also, weak domains can take a long time to drop from the SERPs - they have lots of pages that are rarely crawled.
-
Hi Jarred,
With regards to advice on this topic - what are you trying to accomplish?
Is the issue that you are using the same content for both sites and are worried about duplicate content?
If this is the case, a 301 redirect should solve your problems.
Have you stopped hosting on the old site?
If not it still exists as far as Google is concerned and you aren't going to see a de-indexation. Even if you have stopped hosting it can take months for Google to realize the site isn't there. Normally you start by seeing a few pages developing 400 errors before being removed completely. This isn't ideal as you are losing the link profile for these pages, hence the value of 301's.
Is it a 301 redirect situation?
If you are redirecting to the new domain, you are not going to de-index the old one. As far as Google is concerned it still exists and will continue to exist as long as it retains hosting.
In addition to above, de-indexation of a website can take months. We had this issue with a client we were transferring 300 domains for and it took about 2-3 months to see Google recognize the pages from the new websites and disregard the old ones. That being said, we were conducting redirects and the old pages never truly disappeared or de-indexed.
In short, 16 days probably isn't a long enough time frame to see any significant changes - if you are using 301's, this change won't happen at all. It doesn't mean anything negative from what you've described here.
If you want to fill me in on more details I'm happy to help as best I can.
Cheers,
Rob
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
-
Does changing text content on a site affects seo?
HI, i have changed some h1 and h2 , changed and added paragraphs,fixed plagiarism,grammar and added some pics with alt text, I have just done it today, I am ranking on second page QUESTION-1 is it gonna affect my 2 months SEO efforts? QUESTION -2 Do I have to submit sitemap to google again? QUESTION-3 does changing content on the site frequently hurts SEO?
Algorithm Updates | | Sam09schulz0 -
About porn sites and ranking
Hello, I'm thinking to extend my website into porn. At the moment there is no pornography on it, although we do talk about sex related topics and products (from dating to tutorials, to toys etc.) Would it be dangerous to keep the porn section on the same domain as the rest? Would this negatively affect my non-porn content as Googlebot would "flag" my website as being pornographic (although only a few pages would be)? Or simply Googlebot would leave the current non-porn pages ranking as they are now, just fine, and plus it would rank the porn pages if they "deserve" to? I hope my question is clear. I don't want to create a subdomain.
Algorithm Updates | | fabx0 -
How long for google to de-index old pages on my site?
I launched my redesigned website 4 days ago. I submitted a new site map, as well as submitted it to index in search console (google webmasters). I see that when I google my site, My new open graph settings are coming up correct. Still, a lot of my old site pages are definitely still indexed within google. How long will it take for google to drop off or "de-index" my old pages? Due to the way I restructured my website, a lot of the items are no longer available on my site. This is on purpose. I'm a graphic designer, and with the new change, I removed many old portfolio items, as well as any references to web design since I will no longer offering that service. My site is the following:
Algorithm Updates | | rubennunez
http://studio35design.com0 -
Is it a good idea to 301 redirect one same niche site towards another site for seo benefit
Hello friends, I have 2 android niche sites, one site is running on a technology dropped domain i catch 1 year ago it has, almost 400+ domains linking to different parts of the site, the other one i established from scratch and both are running from jan 2015. Now i want to redirect first site which already has 400 links pointing towards it to the home page of my 2nd android site. Is it a good idea to do so and does it give any boost in terms of seo?
Algorithm Updates | | RizwanAkbar0 -
With regards to SEO is it good or bad to remove all the old events from our website?
Our website sells tickets for various events across the UK, we do have a LOT of old event pages on our website which simply say SOLD OUT. What is the best practice? Should these event pages be removed and a 301 redirect added to redirect to the home page? Or should these pages remain in tact with simply SOLD OUT on the page?
Algorithm Updates | | Alexogilvie0 -
Does adding lots of new content on a site at one time actually hurt you?
When speaking with a client today, he made the comment that he didn't want all of the new content we'd been working to be added to the site all at once for fear that he would get penalized for flooding the site with new content. I don't have any strong data to confirm or refute the claim, is there any truth to it?
Algorithm Updates | | JordanRussell0 -
Youtube dofollow link to web site
Is there still a dofollow link back from a youtube channel to your web site? I filled in the site url in the profile, which in my understanding used to be the single dofollow link back to your web site. However, when I view the page source for the youtube channel it shows up as a nofollow link. Also, in OSE the link does not appear. Has this changed or am I just not doing this correctly?
Algorithm Updates | | uwaim20120 -
What are the good strategies using satellite sites in SEO??
Hello to everybody, We'are thinking about launching a massive amount of satellite websites in order to promote our website. Is it really efficient in terms of link building? Or is the ROI really small due to the amount of time and money needed to create and manage these websites? Thanks a lot!!! Update: Thanks to all of you for all these interesting answers!
Algorithm Updates | | sarenausa1