Switching to a domain name with keywords in it, is it possible to make this happen smoothly?

[adriandg]

Hello,

We have been working on the SEO of our site for almost a year now, and we are still not really seeing the success we would like to see.  I notice often we get outranked by other sites that have lower PA/DA/citations/reviews etc than us, and the only explaination i can find is that they are getting a boost for a Partial Keyword Match in the domain name.

Right now our domain name is: http://www.storwell.com

And we are considering switching to http://www.storwellselfstorage.com and of course 301 redirecting all the individual pages from the old domain to the new domain's pages.

How much would we risk loosing out in this transition?  Can we safely transfer domains, or do we risk loosing the majority of our PA & DA because the backlinks will point at redirects instead of the actual location?

Has anyone successfully managed to transfer domains and keep their DA & PA?

[adriandg]

EGOL,

I agree we have been having some server issues, and were considering switching hosts. we also could do a bit of javascript and css optimization to get load times down, we aren't as optimized as we could be in that department.

As for homepage v.s. subpage, we were doing it that we because we heard that was the best way to approach multiple locations in local SEO.  See here:

David Mihm at SMX: http://www.aimclearblog.com/2011/06/08/so-where-are-you-actionable-local-seo-tactics-from-smx-advanced/

Muti-Location Tips

• Implement flat site architecture, give each site own page, make it unique, indexable

The title tags with full adresses was a mistake, i admit, it was a test, because i read somewhere to do it, it didn't work out, infact it backfired in our faces and in some cases our rankings droped. not in this particular case, but in others it did.  We have changed it back, but we are still waiting for google to pickup on the change.

[EGOL]

Ryan, I think that you are giving great advice and are the most generous SEO contributor that I have seen.

Let us know when you are taking new clients.

[DGSEO]

Sounds like a pretty great endorsement, Storwell! Pay for a few hours of help  Or at least get started by implementing the great free advice you just got!.

[RyanKent]

I can't begin to share how much I appreciate the praise EGOL. It means a tremendous amount to me as you are one of the people I look up to here.

I am trying to build my own site as well. I probably should reduce my Q&A time here. I had developed such a love of SEO that I find the moz experience quite addicting.

I am not accepting new clients at this time. Thanks again for the recommendation.

[EGOL]

Storwell,  If I was you I would hire Ryan for just a few hours.  Spend a phone call talking about your business and your goals so that he understands them.  Then let him spend an hour or two studying your site and your competitive position with a goal of making a plan for the onpage optimization of your site and some ideas for promoting.  Then spend an hour on the phone to discuss the plan and his recommendations.

He is one of the most active people at SEOMoz Q&A and gives tons of competent and generous advice.  I would not hesitate to have him work on one of my sites - and I am a very picky person when it comes to my sites.

I don't know if he does this type of work or if you are interested... but looks like an opportunity for you to get a carefully considered plan.

[RyanKent]

It seems you are entirely focused on off-page factors. What about on-page?

I see many opportunities for improvement on your site. I see you on SEOmoz very frequently. You ask good questions and offer intelligent feedback, but have not incorporated some basic SEO best practices into your own site.

• Image names. The first image I looked at on your site is named STW_RW-11s.jpg. How about naming it self_storage_mississauga_site.jpg instead?

• Alt text. It seems all of the images in your header have the same alt text "self storage mississauga tour". Look at the SEOmoz Page Analysis for Alt Text on your page. It shows the identical alt text about 20 times. This is not good. How about "self storage mississauga entrance", "mississauga storage facility gate" and other variations?

• Title. Your H1 tag is great "Self Storage Mississauga". How about matching your page title to it? Either "Self Storage Mississauga" or "Self Storage Mississauga | Storwell"? The fewer the words, the more weight each term carries.

• Page load speed. I tried loading your page twice. First time was 30 seconds, second time was 19 seconds. Perhaps it is an intermittent issue. Your competitor's page loaded for me in 2 seconds each time. You site scores an 80 on page speed which leaves room for improvement. I would suggest trying to get it up a bit higher. I tried to use the SEOmoz LDA tool on your site and couldn't as it kept timing out.

Your site is much nicer then your competitors. Your images, trust badges, social engagement icons, etc all offer a better user experience. I could go further and try to analyze your competitor, but you have numerous opportunities to improve! Why focus one competitor when you can optimize your site then beat many!

[EGOL]

They are competing against your interior page with their homepage.   They are better optimized than you are.  Use your homepage as a weapon.

Your title tags are loaded with address information when keywords or value propositions could be used (your address is still visible in  SERPs so you still have that if removed from title tag).

Your server is soooooooo slooooooooooow....   really bad.

[DGSEO]

It shouldn't really matter BUT "storage" in the domain name could be the issue.  I have a couple competitors in my niche that win a high position on Google based almost entirely on their domain names.  No relevant backlinks but excellent on-page SEO.  The only reason we beat them is that we have a VERY old site with LOTS of great backlinks, content and history.  I hate it that this is true and I know Google is addressing it, but the inurl keyword deal has way  too much value.

Again...  Just my opinion based on my own experience.  I'm not an SEO for hire - I do this for my own businesses only.  There are many people who post in these forums with a much broader knowledge on this kind of thing than me. So... weigh your choices carefully - or as Guru Egol suggests, find a good consultant.  It's amazing what one conversation with a knowledgeable consultant can do for you.  Even at a ridiculously high hourly rate it worth talking to a "rock star" if you can get access to one!

[adriandg]

In the local serp for "storage mississauga": http://www.google.ca/search?q=storage+mississauga&pws=0&hl=en&num=10

We are ranked #3 underneath #2 which absolutely blows my mind how they outrank us.  If you compare PA/DA we beat them.  We have more citations, more reviews, and a more complete places page.  The have hardly any backlinks compared to us.  So in my mind the only way they are outranking us is from the "storage" in their domain name.

The only other factor that might be coming into play here is that they are 2Km closer to city center than we are.

Please do correct me if i am wrong here, i would love to know!

[adriandg]

Thanks for the advice.  We have been considering this for a while now, but have not yet come to a solid agreement on which SEO to hire to do this for us.  I'm definitely open to specific suggestions.

[adriandg]

We're in there, but we are very far from the city center so we don't pop up for "toronto self storage".  It is a very competative local SERP, and the companies closest to the city center are really benefiting from the location bonus.  We do rank for some of the other smaller suburbs of toronto though, like "mississauga storage" or "scarborough storage" or even "etobicoke storage" (the only serp where we are #1).

[EGOL]

I would not redirect this site until it has been properly optimized and its current potential identified.  It would be like buying new hardware because your code is bloated.

[DGSEO]

My experience with 301s has been excellent even when redirecting from one root domain to another.  If the content of the page doesn't change much I don't see where you'd have a problem.  So if I were you I wouldn't let that part prevent me from making the change.

As far as the change in domain name goes... no matter what Google says, they sure seem to credit an enormous amount of weight to keywords in a domain.  Your customers are looking for self storage, right?  I'd have that in the domain if I could. I don't see the risk.  Maybe someone smarter than me could address that for you but IMO and based on my experience there is little risk.

That said... I did a Google search for "Toronto self storage" and you had no local listing.  If you don't have your local business listings set up, maybe this would be a better place to focus a little effort...?

[EGOL]

Just saying what I would do if I was in your situation....

I think that you have a fantastic domain.  Nice.  I would not change it.

You have been working on this for a year and not getting results.

In my opinion, your on-page optimization is not very good.  Like everyone you could also use some better links.

I think that it is time to get a professional SEO to do a "study and recommend" for you.  They would discuss your visibility goals, study your site, do a little research and then spend an hour on the phone with you giving you a "to do list" and talking you through how to implement it.

Your business is worth this small investment.  It will benefit you for a long time.

This is not something that can be done in the five to ten minutes that is normally spent in a Q&A.  I think that you have a nice business that deserves something a lot more than quick advice.

If I was you I would find an SEO who gives great advice here for free, read that person's profile to see if they do work for hire and ask if they can help.  I am not recommending myself because I don't do work for hire - just trying to give you the best advice that will get your site effective as quickly as possible.  Every day that you go without better rankings is lost income.  Find someone who can get you flying as soon as possible.

Just my two cents.

[Thos003]

We transferred from Bulwarkpest.com to Bulwarkpestcontrol.com to get the keyword match. But we were not really risking much as there was very little SEO effort put into bulwarkpest.com. Worked well for us, but you will most likely see a drop while the search engines test your new site to see if the new site is relevant. If you have an off season then you may want to test this then. If the redirect doesn't benefit you then you should be able to regain positions by simply going back to the original domain.

However, you may want to look more into 'brand building" Orkin ranks just fine for pest control without it being in their domain name.

[RyanKent]

As an active mozzer, you are aware there will be a loss of link juice with your redirect. You will gain the benefit of the partial match domain but I would suggest it is not worth it to make this change. You are fortunate to have a clear, 8 letter .com domain name.

I am confident that there are other factors involved with the rankings and you can beat your competition without switching domains. Can you share a site that presently outranks you which you feel shouldn't?