Root domain change - how do we best handle existing backlinks from our own content platforms on youtube, etc?
-
Hi, we have recently changed our brand name after 7 years and have changed our root domain to match (33shake.com since 2012, now 33 fuel.com)
The site is the same (no migration to a new one) as there were no other business changes apart from the name/domain.
301 redirects are looking after all former 33shake.com links, which are now being redirected to their new 33fuel.com equivalents (slugs are the same in 99% of cases).
My question is:
We have a lot of backlinks for our old domain (33shake.com) on our own content via our YouTube channel (100+ videos) and also our podcast (64 episodes in, broadcast on 10 platforms).
For maximum SEO benefit as we continue to restore domain authority, etc to 33fuel.com, are we best to leave these historical backlinks pointed at the old domain and let the redirects pick them up when people click? Or are we better off swapping all of these old historical backlinks so they point directly to the new domain?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, this is quite a maze we are now picking our way through!
Warren
-
Thanks so much for the clear and helpful response. Amending the links is easy enough for us to do, we'll get to it.
-
You're better off amending the links if at all possible. 301 redirects are great, but they can break down for many reasons. One reason a 301 can be refused equity flow, is if the old content is too 'dissimilar' to the new content (think Boolean string similarity, not 'what humans think'). If the old content and new content are 60% similar, don't expect 100% of the authority to go through. If the old and new content are only 20% similar, barely any SEO authority (if any) will translate across
This is to combat SEO-authority sculpting through redirects. If webmasters decided they voluntarily, editorially wanted to link to one old page, but the new page is barely similar to that old resource - are the old hyperlinks still 'valid' in terms of contributing SEO authority? In many cases, no they are not (the webmasters or editors, may not have chosen to link to the new content - even though they did link to the old content). Past a certain point, content has to re-prove itself
Amending the hyperlinks circumvents that judgement, though links do also decay over time. In general, I have found link amends to be superior to 301 redirects, 90% of the time
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
-
Backlink quality vs quantity: Should I keep spammy backlinks?
Regarding backlinks, I'm wondering which is more advantageous for domain authority and Google reputation: Option 1: More backlinks including a lot of spammy links Option 2: Fewer backlinks but only reliable, non-spam links I've researched this topic around the web a bit and understand that the answer is somewhere in the middle, but given my site's specific backlink volume, the answer might lean one way or the other. For context, my site has a spam score of 2%, and when I did a quick backlink audit, roughly 20% are ones I want to disavow. However, I don't want to eliminate so many backlinks that my DA goes down. As always, we are working to build quality backlinks, but I'm interested in whether eliminating 20% of backlinks will hurt my DA. Thank you!
Technical SEO | | LianaLewis1 -
Best way to absorb discontinued brand/domain?
Our parent company is looking to absorb the domain of a brand we are discontinuing. The domain we want to absorb has a thousands of blog posts from 2010 onward. Much of the content is old but still high-converting. We would like to keep as much of the potential traffic as possible, but we don't want the parent website to become too large or lose credibility with too many 301 redirects. Any advice on the best way to do this?
Technical SEO | | NichGunn1 -
Old domain to new domain
Hi, A website on server A is no longer required. The owner has redirected some URLS of this website (via plugin) to his new website on server B -but not all URLS. So when I use COMMAND site:website A , I see a mixture of redirected URLS and not redirected URLS.Therefore two websites are still being indexed in some form and causing duplication. However, weirdly when I crawl with Screaming Frog I only see one URL which is 301 redirected to the new website. I would have thought I'd see lots of URLs which hadn't been redirected. How come it is different to using the site:command? Anyway, how do I move to the new website completely without the old one being indexed anymore. I thought I knew this but have read so many blogs I've confused myself! Should I: Redirect all URLS via the HTACESS file on old website on server A? There are lots of pages indexed so a lot of URLs. What if I miss some? or Point the old domain via DNS to server B and do the redirects in website B HTaccess file? This seems more sensible but does this method still retain the website rankings? Thanks for any help
Technical SEO | | AL123al0 -
Why am I getting millions of links from my root domain to my subdomains?
My site's subdomains (us.example.com, de.example.com, etc.) are showing millions of links (in Google Webmaster Tools) from the root domain. This seems very unnatural to me. Any idea what would be cause this or is this? In addition, I just found out that we deliberately stop googlebot crawling GEO-IP redirects, so that when googlebot tries to crawl our UK, DE, FR, etc. sites, it is not redirected to us.example.com. I'm thinking they may be linked? Thanks for your help!
Technical SEO | | CMcC0 -
301 Redirect & Linking Root Domain Count
Howdy Mozzers! If I do a 301 redirect from a domain that say has 200 linking root domains, to a fresh domain will the fresh domain now (when updated) have a linking root domain count of 200? Also, is it beneficial or detrimental to do a 301 redirect for an unrelated website i.e. garden hose website, to a children's playgorund equipment website in order to capture the link juice? Best
Technical SEO | | clickfactory0 -
Domain authority not showing on root domain?
I was going through our site earlier w/ the mozBar (still learning the tools, new here) and saw the attached image. There were far more links to the subdomain (#s on the left) than the root domain (#s on right). This is strange to me, because we are not using any subdomains. All links point to either our root domain or subfolders off our root domain. Is this hurting our ranking for the root domain? Not sure what's up with this. Zz9j0.jpg
Technical SEO | | askotzko0 -
Best hosting
We understand that some companies offering class c ips can still be fingerprinted.. Is there any hosting site that does offer class c ips that prevents that? Or is the best bet using privacy on all domains and then using multiple hosting companies, checking the ips they offer as you go? If that is the case, are there any recommendations for the best host companies that offer the least fingerprinting?
Technical SEO | | Stevej240 -
Backlink: External blog Vs. Internal blog. Which is the best?
Hi, some weeks ago a created a blog: mykeyword.wordpress.com Some one told me that it has got more trust that a "normal" www.mykeyword.com
Technical SEO | | Greenman
Is it true? So, i wrote some articles and dropped a guide (linking inside to mysite.com) to blog. My question is:
Right now i'm writing a lot of article ad i'm looking for the best channel where publish my content (post with link inside). My focus is improving quantity and quality of backlinks. Which way must i use? 1. Use my mykeyword.wordpress.com (give freshness to blog and new backlink)
2. Create ad internal blog mysite.com/blog and add article (without link?)
3. "Don't lose time" - Put new article only in external blog that will link to my site. I must manage a lot of new sites and i should increase SERP position. So, i have to choose the right way right now. Thanks 😉0