Redirecting Powerful Domains
-
What do you do if you have a client that never implemented a 301 redirect on their domain? For example here are the OSE stats for the URLs;
PA: 48 DA: 50 LRD: 65 TL: 1,084 FB: 178 FB: 14 T:5
PA: 51 DA: 50 LRD: 165 TL: 2,271 FB: 178 FB: 14 T:5 G+1:3
My first instincts are to redirect the first one to the second one, but is it too late for that? Will that screw up all of their established stats? Any input or examples of past experiences with this would be great.
-
A lot of information outside of SEO should be considered before redirecting a domain.
-
I agree with Daniel. It is never too late to fix this issue.
My suggestion would be to fix the root cause of this issue. Go into the web server and perform the URL redirect at that level. This way no one will ever be able to see the non-www version of your site. If you try to access http://google.com you will notice the "www." is automatically added. This method should stop any future non-www linking.
Once the redirect is in place, TEST IT. Don't just test the root domain but also just a couple pages as well.
Once the change is made, determine if any of the non-www links are internal. If so, fix them immediately. Next determine if any of the non-www links are under the site's control. Your social network links, signature links, other sites you own, etc. should all be updated to use the "www" link.
-
Not that I know of. Maybe someone else can chime in with their experience.
I could possibly see an issue with Analytics if you're running an AdWords campaign for the old site version. But that would be a simple fix, if it's even an issue.
SEOmoz's section on redirects is comprehensive:
-
That's what I thought. Could there be some negative impact that I'm not thinking of? Besides that small percentage of link juice.
-
It would have been better to do it earlier.
But losing that small percentage of link juice (1-10%) is a small price to pay for canonicalizing (with a 301 re-direct) that website.
You have a lot of links to gain by doing this (1,084) and you prevent duplicate content issues.
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
-
Ugly Redirect Chain
Hey everyone, Hoping to get your take on this: We have some very high demand products, they usually sell out in minutes (lucky us, eh?!) We are implementing a queue function on a product page - basically if too many people try to check out at the same time, we dump them in a queue The queue could kick in before or after search engines have indexed the product page The product page has markup and on-page content relating to the product. The queue page exists on an external (yes, external) site The queue page will not have any of the product info, markup, or optimised page title Product page will 302 to queue page and starts a series of 302 redirects! Here's the sequence when queue is active: CANONICAL product page (with markup, on-page product info, optimised page title, etc.)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TSEOTEAM
>> 302 >> queue page on external domain (ZERO markup, product info or page title)
>>302>> same queue page, but throwing a hashed queue ID into the URL (basically giving you your place in the queue)
HELD IN QUEUE FOR A FEW MINUTES
**>> 302> ** NON-CANONICAL product page (with markup, on-page product info, optimised page title, etc.) I can foresee two scenarios search engine has indexed product page prior to queue kicking in. Then queue kicks in 302ing search engine to queue page. because it's a 302 the crappy queue page content is indexed back to the originating product page. This causes search engines to drop the product page cos all the product-specific markup/content has been overwritten with crappy queue page content search engines don't manage to index product page before queue kicks in. They crawl product page URL, get 302 to queue page, index crappy queue page content and think the product page is crappy, so don't traffic it. They will recrawl the product page once the queue's turned off, only to discover the product has sold out - boo. I very much doubt the search engines will 'wait for a few minutes' so may never end up reaching the product page again. I'm trying to get the markup/product info and optimised meta data injected into the queue page, so that remains present at all points on the journey in the hope that this enables search engines to continue to rank and traffic the product page. What's your take on this? Any suggestions on how we might overcome the issues? (before you ask; avoiding using the queue system is impossible, sorry!) Thanks!1 -
Sub-domain vs Root domain
I have recently taken over a website (website A) that has a domain authority of 33/100 and is linked to from 39 root domains. I have not yet selected any keywords to target so am currently unsure of ranking positions. However, website A is for a division of a company that has its own separate website (website B) which has a domain authority of 58/100 and over 1000 legitimate linking root domains. I have the option of moving website A to a sub-domain of website B. I also have the option of having website B provide a followed link to website A. So, my question is, for SEO purposes, is my website better off remaining on its own existing domain or is it likely to rank higher as a sub-domain of website B? I am sure there are pros and cons for both options but some opinions would be much appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BallyhooLtd0 -
Redirects in .htaccess file
I am using yoast seo plugin for wordpress. I have done several link changes and placed approximately 80-100 301 redirect into .htaccsses file. Is this good practice? Do they have to be there forever? Is it not slowing down site? Or should this be done in different way? Thank you very much Iris
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Rebeca10 -
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 -
Redirect multiple domains to a primary domain
Hello that such I make the following query imagine we have three domains on the same thematic or category primary domain: domain-antiguo1.com (3 years) (200 Backlink), domain-antiguo2.net (10 years) (1000 Backlinks) and domain-antiguo3.com (6 years) (500 Backlinks) and decide to redirect all these domains favorite one: domain-principal.com The three domains registered refeccionar this google webmaster, has its respective income sitemap and google webmaster area change of address to the main domain the three domains are my property It would have a penalty for doing this practice?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | globotec0 -
Using Webmaster Tools to Redirect Domain to Specific Page on Another Domain
Hey Everyone, we redirected an entire domain to a specific URL on another domain (not the homepage). We used a 301 Redirect, but I'm also wondering if I should use the Google Webmaster Tools "Change of Address" section to redirect. There is no option to redirect the old domain to the specific URL on the new domain within the "Change of Address" section. Thoughts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | M_D_Golden_Peak0 -
Redirect 301 or Canonical.
Hello all, I have a page with a long post title and url path name (more than 70 caracters and 115). This page has many visits but I am changing the SEO website structure according to SEOMOz and forums guidelines so: I WILL CREATE A DUPLICATE PAGE WITH THE SAME INFO. This issue has been marked as an issue in the SEO tools, for long names>70 and url path names>115 My question is which option should I use and you would recommend me? 1. OPTION 1: Ideally I would like to keep the old post, so I should use the canonical tag, but my main concern is if the search engines in terms of SEO, even the canonical has been done, will penalise my SEO as there is still a post with bad SEO optimising, or if this is not the case because I already used the canonical. 2. OPTION 2: Eliminate the post and redirection 301 to the new page to keep the juice. I would prefer option 1, as I keep both post and page, but only if searchengines do not penalise my SEO as they detect a long post name and url path name. Thank you verty much, Antonio
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | aalcocer20030 -
302 redirect
Aloha, I do a small study of 302 redirects. I wonder if you have any examples of sites where the use of a 302 is made.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | android_lyon
For example, to ski resorts: where there is a summer version and a winter version. In this case, the field of 302 will return the version of the relevant season. ex: http://www.valmorel.com/ >> 302 >> http://www.valmorel.com/fr/hiver/accueil-hiver.html I wonder if the use of 302 is the right solution.
What do you think? D.0