Rebranding/Changing the name of an established domain in order to target a bigger market?
-
So let's say I have a site called "ToyotaParts.com" that has good SEO metrics and is ranking highly for keywords like "toyota tires", "toyota battery", etc....
What if I decide that I wanna target other cars as well with my site and keywords like "mazda tires", yet still want to take advantage of my domain's existing authority...
Can I do something like get a new domain like "carparts.com" and redirect the old domain to it and then continue to create new pages that would target new keywords, or would I risk losing my current domain's authority or running into other seo issues?
Thanks a lot
-
Tom,
I do get what you are going for. I also understand what Ray is saying and I do think he has some good points. I would also start by looking at multiple options. The options I see are this:
- Keep the current domain and expend it like Ray suggested (/mazda=tires/ etc).
- Start a new domain (carparts.com) and redirecting your current pages to the new domain (carports.com/toyota-parts/)
- Keep the current domain and create a new domain for your expansion and linking them all together. So you get toyotaparts.com, mazdaparts.com, hondaparts.com etc.
Every option has a few pro's and cons speaking for it. The domain you currently own and use also has an age factor in its favor. By redirecting it to a new domain you may pass on the authority but you won't pass on the age of the domain. Though new websites tend to rank well in the beginnen, then start dropping some and then settle down it's still a risk factor. Ever more in a very competitive niche.
Maybe the real answer is somewhere in between the options. You could also keep what you have right now, and expend by creating both carparts.com and mazdaparts.com. What you then could do is build something on carparts.com and from there refer to each individual site (toyotaparts.com/mazdaparts.com etc). And you expend by creating new fresh sites and by creating your own high quality new fresh content that's unique and refer it to your other content on the other websites. That way you get a spider web with carports in the center of it and the other sites at the far end, linking it all together to one giant network. Some SEO's might have to say something about this too but I'm just giving you my piece of mind and my thoughts on this subject.
Hope this helps you some.
Regards
Jarno
-
Generally speaking, a 301 redirect transfers 98%+ of the authority when implemented properly. However, I would do a complete evaluation to see if a new domain is the strategy you want to move forward with. Even though Toyota may be narrowly targeted, can you create subdirectories (toyotaparts.com/maza-tires) that are intuitive? If so, it may be more effective to keep the original domain intact.
Also, since you have an authority website, creating content on both and intelligently linking from the old domain to the new domain (creating quality content on both site and linking from toyotaparts.com to mazdatires.com) may also be immediately effective for certain keywords.
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
-
Http & https domain names
We currently have a site which we found SEM Rush to show that their were duplicate pages for the site. Upon further inspection we realized this was because there existed both http:// and https:// Versions of the site. Is this a problem for Google that the site appears for both http:// and https:// and that there are therefore duplicate versions of the site?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Gavo0 -
Does Domain Authority remian if site owner and server changes
Hi i am looking at buying an existing domain. It is currently vacant and the site is just on a godaddy holdpage. if i buy this domain, will its DA and PA TF CF still remain if we don't lose the links? thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Direct_Ram0 -
Redirecting Domain / Maintaining Keyword Ranking
Right now we have two sites: "our-company.com" and "cool-widgets.com." We rank high for "cool widgets" searches due to our keyword-friendly URL, but we're merging everything into our newly-redesigned company site. Should we redirect the old "cool-widgets.com" homepage to "our-company.com" (to directly transfer the old PR and links), or would it be more prudent to redirect the old homepage to "our-company.com/cool-widgets" to keep the "cool widgets" keyword in the URL? This option seems like it would be good for maintaining organic search results, but it wouldn't pass the strong link backbone to the new site's homepage.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | versare0 -
Is a rebranding that calls for a domain change a good time to sneak in a change to HTTPS?
Assumed: The material around good migration/redesign practices recommend, logically enough, to change as few things as possible in any given step, thus giving search engines as little trouble as possible identifying and reindexing changes. So if someone is doing significant changes to content, including uri changes, and a rebranding that requires a domain migration, they are generally better off doing one, than the other. 1) Beyond immediate testing and checking for correct crawl health being reestablished after one change, any thoughts on rules of thumb for when to do the second change? Do you do it as soon as you see your rankings/traffic turn the corner and confirm an upward trend after the drop, or wait till you have it all back (or at least hit a plateau)? In the absence of data or best practice I'm thinking of just letting 1/3rd to 2/3rds come back. Is a change to HTTPS small enough/similar enough from the search engine's perspective that it makes more sense to do that at the same time as the rebrand driven domain change? Does this create any special risks or considerations beyond those that arise from the individual components of the change?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JFA0 -
Domain Name Redirect Question
My agency just built a new website for a client who is a franchisee. It's not launched yet - it's currently under an IP address. I suggested to client that he buy a keyword-rich domain name for it, which he did. Then he found out that the franchisor will not allow it to be his main domain name. They want him to use a domain name with the franchisor name in it. But they WILL allow him to put a 301 redirect on that franchisor-approved domain name, and redirect it to his keyword-rich domain name. He is interested in having my agency perform an SEO Campaign for this new website. But would SEO and link marketing work for a website that has a new non-keyword domain name that 301 redirects to a new keyword-rich domain name?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | netsites0 -
301 many smaller domains to a new, large domain
Hi all, I have a question regarding permanently redirecting many small websites into one, large new one. During the past 9 years I have created many small websites, all focusing on hotel reservations in one specific city. This has served me beautifully in the past, but I have come to the conclusion that it is no longer a sustainable model and therefore I am in the process of creating one large, worldwide hotel reservations website. To not loose any benefit of my hard work the past 9 years, I want to permanently redirect the smaller websites to the correct section of my new website. I know that if it is only a few websites, that this strategy is perfectly acceptable, but since I am talking about 50 to 100 websites, I am not so sure and would like to have your input. Here is what I would like to do: (the domain names are not mine, just an example) Old website: londonhotels.com 301 to newdomain.com/london/ Old website: berlinhotels.com 301 to newdomain.com/berlin/ Old website: amsterdamhotels.com 301 to newdomain.com/amsterdam/ Etc., etc. My plan is to do this for 50 to 100 websites and would like to have your thoughts on if this is an acceptable strategy or not. Just to be clear, I am talking about redirecting only my websites that are in good standing, i.e. none of the websites I am thinking about 301'ing have been penalized. Thanks for your thoughts on this.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | tfbpa0 -
Change of web hosting?
Does change of web hosting have any effects on a websites SEO?and what are the factors that need to be taken care off while changing web hosting company in terms of seo perspective.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HiteshBharucha0 -
How to deal with competition with a similar domain name as my client website?
How can I deal with other websites that have a keyword domain name similar to my client website? I get a few domains similar to my client domain name just to avoid the same issue, but there are a few others ranking for the same keywords and I don't want posible customers get confused with a similar domain name. I have social media (Facebook, Twitter, Linked in and etc), but they are not ranking on the first page. This is the situation: www.domain.com that would be my client's domain. And the competition: www.bestdomain.com www.thedomain.com www.domaincomapany.com And a few more. At this time my client is ranking #1 position, but all the others ar 1 or 2 positions bellow.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jpgprinting0