How to switch brand domain and address previous use of domain
-
We recently acquired a new domain to replace existing as it better fits our brand. We have little/no organic value on existing domain so switching is not an issue. However the newly acquired domain was previously used in a different industry and has inbound links with significant spam scores. How can we let Google know that these links are not valid for our business and start rebuilding reputation of the domain? Disavow tool?
-
Great response, Thomas!
-
when the migration is made, you obviously need to check your all and monitor your backlinks carefully. Some of they may can be damaged (we've got this problem after domain name migration). I would recommend to check all your web site for broken links also (moz, sreamingfrog) and broken backlinks (atomseo, ahrefs).
-
you need to check your Backlinks on the new domain I agree you should definitely not start from a negative place.
If you do decide to make the switch
https://moz.com/blog/seo-guide-how-to-properly-move-domains
https://yoast.com/move-wordpress-blog-domain-10-steps/
https://moz.com/researchtools/crawl-test
https://www.deepcrawl.com/ ( My personal favorite)
https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
https://varvy.com/tools/ is showing you have a domain rank of five that is good.
Make sure you did the 301 redirects that are needed to keep your old URLs pointing to your new URLs
https://moz.com/community/q/how-to-keep-old-url-juice-during-site-switch
https://moz.com/blog/achieving-an-seo-friendly-domain-migration-the-infographic
http://www.aleydasolis.com/images/seo-website-domain-migration.gif
https://moz.com/community/q/changing-domains-how-much-link-juice-is-lost-with-301-redirect
**More (might want to come back to this) **
https://www.deepcrawl.com/knowledge/best-practice/guide-to-url-design/
https://www.deepcrawl.com/knowledge/best-practice/domain-design-for-seos/
https://www.deepcrawl.com/knowledge/best-practice/expired-content-for-seos/
-
Howdy,
This brings into question if you should use the new domain name at all. You are going to have to start at a "negative" SEO standpoint and you may or may not be able to work your way out of it. Here is what I would do.
Setup Google Search Console and Google Analytics for the new domain. Start getting some data on how Google looks at this domain and if it sends traffic. If you do not have access to the old website setup, look at the Search Console errors to see what pages Google expects to see and get an idea of the URL structure. You can also use the wayback machine potentially for this. Search Console will also give you sites that link to this domain and what URLs they were pointing to.
Just because this domain has links from sites with significant spam scores according to Moz, does not mean that your new domain is penalized, it just has a higher potential.
Perform a link audit using the links you find in OSE, Google Search Console and any other tools such as Majestic, Ahrefs, etc. This will allow you to find all the bad links. Go ahead and disavow the low quality links at the domain level.
All the pages that these "bad links" pointed, just let them 404. I would let every referenced URL from the old site 404. Do not 301 redirect them to the home page or to new pages you have setup. The 301 will not pass any link equity unless they are semantically related, and it sounds like you are setting up a completely new site. Don't worry about all the 404 errors in Google Search Console. Just check them to make sure they are for pages from the old site, vs pages on the new site. The 404 errors will fade away. Likewise, any bad (and good) link equity to the pages are gone as they are going to pages that do not exist.
Some folks around here would say that if you simply 404 the old pages, you do not need to disavow, but you would not be able to do this for the home page. Plus, if you want a conservative, "belt and suspenders" approach to eliminate link equity from the old links, this has you covered.
Finally, even if you only have a little organic SEO on your current site, I would 301 redirect it to the new site to cover that base.
This will hopefully start you from zero, but just know that you will still have an uphill battle. Google has looked at this site before and had it associated with "Red Widgets" and so if the new site is about "Blue Bunnies" it may take a while for the basic classification to change in the Google system, let alone the impact of links etc. Really take some time to consider if you feel like the new domain name is that much better than your old domain name, or some other domain that is related to your current site and does not have a significant spam score.
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
-
Is it ok to repeat a (focus) keyword used on a previous page, on a new page?
I am cataloguing the pages on our website in terms of which focus keyword has been used with the page. I've noticed that some pages repeated the same keyword / term. I've heard that it's not really good practice, as it's like telling google conflicting information, as the pages with the same keywords will be competing against each other. Is this correct information? If so, is the alternative to use various long-winded keywords instead? If not, meaning it's ok to repeat the keyword on different pages, is there a maximum recommended number of times that we want to repeat the word? Still new-ish to SEO, so any help is much appreciated! V.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Vitzz1 -
Same brand but different domains and TLDs, What could be affect on SEO?
I am not sure, if i have a valid question to ask, but i am a bit stuck.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Mustansar
We just got a campaign from one client. Its automotive brand offering the same (classified) services to buy and sell used car on their sites. The issue is the have different domains, which is obvious based on which country they are however issue is those domains are not consistent match as a brand. ie www.mtmotorslab.co.uk
www.mtmotors.co.za
www.motortrader.com.pk
www.motortrader.in
www.mtmotors.com.au my question is here, how could it impact our seo efforts or any such effort to establish a strong brand with this sort situation of different tld as well as different domain under same umbrella. Many Thanks0 -
Sub-domain or not???
Hi, We're setting up a forum for our users (our target audience responds extremely well to forums). I was wondering if it should be set up on a sub-domain or not. I'm leaning towards sub-domain, but our devs say this will impact how they approach it so I'd like to give them an answer asap so we can proceed with planning it! Thanks, Amelia
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CommT0 -
How to switch to HTTPs in Bing?
I am creating a list of all things I need to do for switching a site over to HTTPs. I can find great instructions for Google, but nothing for Bing. If I do everything that Google requires, is the only thing I need to do for Bing is the site move?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | EcommerceSite0 -
Appropriate Use of Canonical Tag
Hello, I am creating study guides for books with tabbed elements for each study guide. For example, for Othello, I'd have 3 tabs like so: 1. Overview page = xyz.com/othello 2. Context = xyz.com/othello/context 3. Characters = xyz.com/othello/characters I noticed that YouTube channels have tabbed elements and use the canonical. For example, all of the tabbed sections on https://www.youtube.com/user/Nerdist/channels have this canonical http://www.youtube.com/user/Nerdist"> In my case, would it be a correct use of the canonical tag to include rel="canonical" href = http://xyz.com/othello on each of the tabbed pages? Also, where exactly in the header should the canonical be placed? Before or after open graph / twitter cards?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | stageagent0 -
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 -
Is it worth buying a Dropped domain?
I've got a domain which was registered in July 2010 and had a website on it. I believe the domain expired and it was dropped for a couple of months. I snapped it up after discovering it in November 2012. Subsequently, the whois records show the domain was created in Nov 2012. What exactly is the "real" age of this domain from Google's perspective? Or at least, as far as SEO is concerned? Cheers,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | syed002
Syed P.S - domain age does indeed warrant some merit in ranking factors!0 -
SEO friendlier domain name
Hi, I just have a doubt. I am building a site I want to optimize for the keyword "slot machine gratis". I have bought two domains: slot-machines-gratis.it and slotmachine-gratis.it. Which domain do you recommend that I use to target the keyword "slot machine gratis"? Thank you.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | salvyy0