Flip-Flopping domains - 301 redirect question
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We have a client who has had the following domain setup for some time:
longdomain.com 301 -> shortdomain.com
Now, they would like to go back to the original longdomain.com, and will have the following setup:
shortdomain.com 301 -> longdomain.com
Obviously, I'm concerned about redirect loops cached in the browser. I plan to have the 301's from longdomain.com changed over to 302's for two weeks ahead of the change, so that hopefully when the change happens, browsers and search engines are more ready to respond. I also plan to establish rel=canonical on the longdomain.com pages after the switch.
Is there anything else you'd recommend to help with the changeover? Should we plan for an intermediary period were both domains are serving the content, so that the redirects can be purged, before being re-established the other direction?
Thanks in advance.
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right on. Also be sure to submit the "Change of Address" request in GSC
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Hey Oleg,
Thanks, I'll include this idea in the discussion!
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Hey Thomas,
They are reverting to a longer domain name that they had used in the past. Its a sort of rebranding effort. They want to move traffic from the short, intermediate domain back to the original, long domain; the wrinkle being that the long domain is currently 301'd to the short one, and the opposite needs to be true after the changeover.
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is your client doing this simply to use a short domain like bit.ly or awe.sm ?
if so they should use one of the tools listed above will
Try
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Hmm, how about you remove the 301s from long domain and set canonicals from shortdomain to longdomain. Eventually, shortdomain will be deindexed (or at least mostly deindexed) and then you can 301 to longdomain.
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