Traffic drop: site move from .co.uk to .info
-
Hi
On 1st June we moved http://www.patient.co.uk to http://patient.info.
We are a trusted health website so the information is relevant to all english speaking countries. (Content on the .co.uk domain has been there for over 15 years).
Prior to the move over 60% of site traffic was international, even with a .co.uk domain.
The intention of the move was to broaden our international reach/traffic whilst maintaining our UK traffic. We would do this as .info is a top level domain.
We followed all of the best practice rules, 301s, new and old sitemaps, change of address in webmaster tools etc. Basically all the advice here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6033049?hl=en&ref_topic=6033084&rd=1
We specifically chose on the new domain to leave "unlisted" under webmaster tools international targeting as the content is relevant for all countries. This is the only thing that has changed compared to the previous settings. The URL structure etc is all identical, just on a different domain.
After the move we immediately saw a drop in c.60% of traffic.
Over the first 5 weeks after the move we had initial gradual recovery (c.2% increase on traffic week on week)
Since then it has completely flatlined with no traffic increase. So we are sat at c.50% less traffic than we did have before the move.
Worryingly over the past 2 weeks, the indexed results for patient.info have dropped from c.2M to c.500k (https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=site%3Apatient.info)
There were c.6M indexed results for patient.co.uk before the move, this has been gradually shrinking and there are now c.300k indexed results (https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=site:patient.co.uk)
In webmaster tools crawl stats, .co.uk is still being crawled like crazy, much more than .info.
It feels like we have followed the rules but something is missing and that the new site just isn't being fully indexed or as highly ranked as the old site.
Anyone who has any input/advice would be much appreciated.
Many thanks
Ben
-
Hi Dmitri
The percentage decrease is the same across each location, and the biggest hit is in the UK which hasnt recovered much. Redirects are consistent each day.
I'll drop you a line and give you access to my GA, any insight would be appreciated
-
Hi there.
I would be looking at Google Analytics a lot. Basically, try to figure out which type (geo/channel/etc) of traffic has been affected. If one of those types of traffic (let's say, direct traffic or traffic from Germany) is the most traffic missing, then you'll at least have an idea where to dig.
Otherwise, if the decrease is the same per each channel/location/etc, then, assuming that all moving procedures were correct, I'd say it's the matter of time.
At the same time check how much traffic is actually being redirected from .co.uk domain. Is that share decreasing? Can there be some problems with redirects?
Regardless, let me know. If you want me to look at your GA, you can give me restricted access. - dmitrii@hyperlinksmedia.com
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
-
Review stars dropped off in Google from Rich Snippets (started in October '17 - Jan '18 timeframe)
Our review stars from Rich Snippets are not showing up in Google for Novus products. I believe these are structured correctly or at least there are no errors. We have tried to troubleshoot on our own and asked multiple SEO'er's and partners, but have not had success. Turning to MOZ! They were there in September/October timeframe but dropped off in October to January timeframe. example URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=hif+1+alpha+antibody&oq=hif+1+alpha+antibod (It seems to be off all products); This started in October to January time frame so was before the latest algo update.
Reviews and Ratings | | revelkayla0 -
How to Properly Add Simple Review Schema to Your Website For a Review Pulled from a Third-Party Site
Hello, I'd like to pull the content of a review from a third-party site and put it on my client's website. My plan is to add review schema to this content but I want to make sure everything I'm doing is white hat before I implement. Can someone please tell me if the following example is okay to do? For example...
Reviews and Ratings | | Etna
I'd like to pull an entire review from Yelp and put it on my website. I would link out to the review on Yelp and then give credit to Yelp in the publisher section of the schema. If I give credit to the name of the reviewer and where the review is being pulled from (in this case Yelp) on both the actual website as well as in the schema, is this white hat and something I could implement? Also, is "simple review" markup the correct markup to use in this scenario?
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/reviews Thanks in advance for your help!!1 -
Review of my site, just starting seo and looking for any tips
Hello, Just after advice for a website I've recently relaunched, started very basic seo. However having loads of pages it’s hard to dedicate the time to get the on-site seo completed. Question for Ecommence sites, do we really need to individually content on all pages? I've also start link building & will be setting up blog, Am debating which task too complete first Or maybe combination of them all. I think due to my dyslexia I keep putting the blog off as you can properly tell English is definitely not one of my strengths. Anyway am looking for advice not just on seo , design too, what your opinions ? I have good concept for marketing just learning the ways to implement it, my website sportingdesires dot com. I believe everyone desires some kind of sport or fitness activity, a hobby you enjoy... mine is football (soccer) hence why I started selling branded football merchandise and ventured into Rugby, Basketball and American football. Will be adding other sports, really need to impermanent a blog... all in good time I suppose. Sorry for my rambling please leave any feedback good or bad I promise I won’t hunt ya down (lol) in all serious am just looking for eyes from people it always help to get mixed reviews and opinions. If you’ve read this far well done and thanks ste
Reviews and Ratings | | sportingdesires0 -
Moving my photography business to another state. Is it possible to transfer Google My Business listing WITHOUT losing my Google Reviews?
A friend of mine is transitioning her photography business to another state. She moved about 5 years ago and consequently lost all of her Google+/Yelp reviews. Having reviews as a photographer is EXTREMELY important for her business reputation. She doesn't want this to happen again. Is it possible to change the location of a Google my Business page and keep the existing reviews? Thanks
Reviews and Ratings | | RosemaryB0 -
Structured Data for mult-location site
Hi, I am developing a site for a service business with multiple location pages within a larger territory. There is only one physical address and phone number for each territory, and the same phone number is therefore relevant for each location page. The mark up requires that I put in the phone number and address for each page, but I think I've previously read that putting the same phone number on each page is a bad idea for my kind of sites (so I have just put it on the main territory page and contact us page). I was was wondering therefore if I should bother with mark up as its just going to be repeating exactly the same address, phone number data for www.site.com/location-A, www.site.com/location-B, /C, /D, /E, /F etc...? Any ideas much appreciated.
Reviews and Ratings | | Anward0 -
Sharing Facebook Comments Across Other Social Sites. Is It Okay?
A customer posted a nice review about our brand on her private FB page. My social monitoring tool found the review and sent me an alert. My question is if it is okay to re-purpose that review across other social channels, if the review was not specifically posted to my brand's FB timeline, but rather, discovered through listening tools.
Reviews and Ratings | | dsinger0 -
Rich Snippets Showing in Site:Search Queries Only?
Hey Mozzers, I'm noticing that several sites of mine are triggering rich snippets for REVIEWS when I do site:search, however when I remove the site:search their results are stripped of rich snippets. Any thoughts on this/others seeing similarities?
Reviews and Ratings | | Leadhub0 -
Migrating Reviews from Old SIte
We recently changed our Website to Word Press and I would like to move the old reviews to the new site. I am concerned Google might not understand the reviews showing up all of a sudden. The old reviews were on a sub-domain (store.domain.com). I will be able to match the dates and text as well as names. Any advice or Best Practice on this? Thanks!
Reviews and Ratings | | Chris6610