Rebranding a Website to a new Domain Name
-
Hi All,
I'm looking to rebrand my current website to a new domain name.
In short the current website has out grown it's potential. The domain name is not memorable nor is it attracting a wider audience.
I will create my new website and 301 redirect the old website to the new, hence pass SEO value.Google Places
Having spoken to Google they tell me that I can simply change the URL in Google Places to the new URL.Articles on my current website
I have a number of rich content articles on my current website, can I simply create my new website and copy & paste these previously written articles?Google+, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
What should I do for accounts associated with the current website?Any other useful information would be much appreciated.
Regards Mark
-
If you do have links sending traffic, those should be the first to update to avoid the slight but unnecessary burden and delay of a redirect. For Google, though, it doesn't really matter. As long as you 301 the whole site correctly to new URLs and change the address in Webmaster Tools, there will be no additional load time.
It's true that you want to avoid big .htaccess files, redirect chains, and inefficient redirects, but that's a rule for live sites. For example, if you were wanting to maintain the domain but move the entire category around, you wouldn't want to add 3000 lines to .htaccess. You should still write a rule rather than going line by line, but it doesn't really matter if it's on an old site that's moving. Search engines will only have to access it once per bot before they get the message and start crawling the new site.
In any case, redirects from the old site to the new won't impact load time unless the redirect is happening all the time, which should never be the case in a site migration. Do make sure to get the right redirect rule and check that it's working, especially on your most-trafficked pages.
-
Where possible it's best to group your URLs with pattern matching. If you're only changing the domain name and no other aspect of the URLs you should be able to handle all redirects with one line of code. This is linked in the guide I posted: www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php - scroll down for htaccess (but double check that's the correct formatting for page-to-page redirects).
-
Hi Ruben and Alex,
Many thanks for the great advice.
I'll be making a strong coffee and reading your article very shortly! ... Thanks Alex for the link.I have one question that comes to mind.
You redirect many urls via your .htaccess file.
Your .htaccess file growns in size.
Search engines take considerably longer to read and process this information.Surely the read + process overhead would be classed as poor site speed and therefore subject to some form of penality by the gods of Google?
Regards Mark
-
For when you launch the new website, Google have a change of address tool:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/83106?hl=enAs mentioned, 301 redirecting the exact old page to the exact same new page is the most important step. Plan ahead and map out your 301 redirects. You want to be sure of what's happening when the domain is transferred to give your rankings and traffic the best chance of remaining intact (or even increasing, which I've seen with some website redesigns).
I think you can change your Twitter handle more than once. If you have a good existing following I'd recommend updating your existing profile to the new handle, and (if possible) re-registering the old Twitter handle at another account - linking in the bio to your new Twitter account. That'll make sure you retain some of the link authority your current Twitter profile has built up and ensure people can still find you through any old links. I think custom Facebook URLs can be changed once.
I actually wrote a site migration guide last week, there should be a few points in there you'll find useful: insideonline.co.uk/website-migration-guide/
-
Moz actually wrote a detailed post about their transition (your probably already read it, but in case not, it's easy to find). Also, just because you 301 the exact page, does not necessarily mean you will rank as highly with the new page as you did the old ones...at least not in the beginning, that's for sure.
Best,
Ruben
-
Hi,
Thank you for your response.
I'm glad to see that you can simply 301 the exact old page to the exact new page.My fears were that all the hard work and cost associated to creating these feature rich articles would be wasted.
I suppose this is exactly how large organisations would tackle such a move. To mention an example SEOMOZ to MOZ.I would appreciate any further information from anybody who has experienced such a move and how they carried out the migration. Additionally and issues and drop in traffic resulting to a new domain name move.
Thanks in advance
Mark
-
Hi,
If you copy and paste the article content, make sure you 301 the exact old page to the exact new page.
For your social sites, you could mention that you are moving to a new brand name soon and then the change over will be expected. For Google+ if you have already used a custom URL you currently can't change it (as far as I know) so you would be stuck with the old brand name.
Hope that helps.
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
-
Correct Localisation of my website on Google
I have a website which services various countries, specifically the United Kingdom and United States of America. I am now expanding the target of my website to focus on Australian and South African customers. The structure of my website is www.websitename.com/us/ for the American audience. This is also what appears on a Google search when browsing in the USA. For the United Kingdom we use just www.websitename.com which works and shows in the UK. When I have created the new versions which are:
Local Website Optimization | | A95Bennett
www.websitename.com/au/
www.websitename.com/za/ I go onto google search my company and still www.websitename.com shows (When browsing from the relevant location). When it should show the /au/ or /za/ versions. I have submitted the relevant sitemaps to Google Search Console. Yet still from Australia and South Africa the .com version of the website it what shows. Please offer any advice to how I can get the correct version of the website showing in the correct location?1 -
Add Content to Page or Create New Page?
We are doing some local SEO for our business which is in 10 cities. We have built a city page with unique content for each city and linked to a unique contact page with contact information unique for each city. The content on our existing page is fairly thin. 2/3 of it is the same amongst all pages as our services are the exact same from city to city so the description ad menu of our services. Then 1/3 of the content is unique to the city which is a stock photo and 1-2 paragraphs of text containing about 175 words. We have another chunk of content for each city which is probably 2-3 paragraphs but each paragraph will be short so probably in total 200 words in 1-3 paragraphs. The subject of the content is related to one of the most popular search queries that are location specific. For example, if we were a company that provided say, environmental remodeling services in city X, this second chunk of content might be about required building permits when doing remodeling in City X and how to get them, how much they cost. If the original content on the pre-existing landing page is already pretty thin, is the SEO effect going to most likely be better to add the content to the existing page or, even though it's less than 200 words, add the content to a separate page and cross link between the main city page and the city contact page.
Local Website Optimization | | SEO18051 -
Boost Website Traffic
Tom Beavan Websites is my business where I create and design affordable websites for small businesses in Wordpress. I am looking to improve my traffic to my website as dramatically as possible. At present, my website is a one-page website with limited content - https://www.tombeavan.co.uk. My website ranks #1 for local keywords like: Web design Wiltshire Web design Trowbridge Wordpress developer UK So in terms of keyword position, I am doing well for local business but I only get 200-300 visitors per month. I would like to dramatically improve this to improve the number of enquiries I get. I do tend to get a few enquiries but think if I improve the website traffic, the quantity of website enquiries will increase too? I have a long list of tasks I would like to do for SEO: Add a lot more content to the website Add more backlinks Guest blogging Lots more What would you recommend a good starting place or a place which will increase traffic effectively? Thanks for your advice in advance 🙂
Local Website Optimization | | tombeavan0 -
An attorney left my clients firm and we still rank well for her name
We've taken down the attorney's official page. Should we redirect her old page to the home page? Do a custom 404? I'm sure there's a best practice here but I'm blanking.
Local Website Optimization | | TheKatzMeow0 -
New Domain Link Building Order - When to 301 Redirect?
Hello Everyone - I am trying to lock down the best Local SEO and link acquisition order for 1 1/2 month old Domain. The Domain is clean - No History - Registered in WMT's on January 20th It's a service franchise website consolidating about 5 independent locations into a single branded site. The each location now has it's own location page on the new site: www.examplesite.com/Location-1 I'm considering the best timing to add 301's to the current Locations individual websites, to the locations pages on the new site.Some of which are currently ranked well (position 2) for one of their primary commercial terms. www.individuallocationsite.com ---> www.examplesite.com/Location-1 I don't want to lose that ranking, but will need to do the 301 redirect at some point. Should I - A.) Complete all of the Citation Work, Natural Profiles, Blog Posts...etc FIRST and let the new website age before 301'ing the locations? Giving it the best chance to have no interruption in those rankings? B:) 301 All the properties into the new website first and start all of the other Local SEO work second? C:) Something else? Thanks in Advance
Local Website Optimization | | CRO_first0 -
Building a new site and want to be found in both Google.co.uk and Goolge.ie. What is the best practice?
We are building a new site which is a .com site and the client would like to be found in both Google.co.uk and Goolge.ie. What is the best practice to go about this? Can you geo-target two countries with the one site?
Local Website Optimization | | WSIDW0 -
Website Migration - remove unnecessary sub-folder?
Rebuilding a site that currently has good rankings. The original site was build in Joomla. I am doing the rebuild on WordPress. The old site is at the domain www.savannah-dentist.com, but clicking on any link generates a url with a subfolder; i.e. the website is at www.savannah-dentist.com, click on the logo and you will go to www.savannah-dentist.com/rosenthal/, the "meet the doctors" link goes to "www.savannah-dentist.com/rosenthal/meet-the-doctors" When I rebuild the site, do I have to retain that url structure? If I get rid of the folder and make everything simply like www.savannah-dentist.com/meet-the-doctors, will I be jeopardizing our rankings? Thanks! -Adam
Local Website Optimization | | aj6130 -
Does building multiple websites hurt you seo wise? Good or bad strategy?
HI,rategy. So I spoke to a local Colorado seo company and they suggested to find whatever keywords is the most searched under my GWT's and put .com behind it and build other sites for other keywords. I was curious about this type of strategy. Does this work? This seo guy said I could just get a DBA bank account and such for each domain name etc. I am not wanting to mislead anyone, but I am curious if for the sake of promoting other services, if creating other websites with partial and EMD's are worthwhile? Another issue I worry about is if I put my companies phone number, then next thing you know there is 3 or 4 sites that use that same phone number. To me this does not build trust with Google. But being I am learning, maybe this is a common strategy, or doomed from the start. Just curious what you think. Would you build other sites to try and rank for other services? Or keep one sites and maximize it? Thank you for your thoughts. I just do not want to pay $3000 per site if it will hurt not help.
Local Website Optimization | | Berner0