Domain name change
-
Here's the scenario... Client has two domain names:
- domain.com - targeting one country (Australia)
- otherdomain.com - targeting all other countries
Both have identical products, but different currencies (AU$ and US$).
The problem (as most of you will know) is that without using a sub-domain or country-code top-level domains, Google has no idea which domain should be served for which domain. Furthermore, because the root domain is different, Google doesn't see any connection between the two - other than the fact they have identical products!
My recommendation to the client is to change to:
Arguably, we could leave the second one alone. But I think it's better for the brand to use the same root domain for each.
Obviously this means both will need to be redirected. Since NONE of the pages within the sites will change, do we need to redirect every page, or just the root domain?
Any other risks or concerns we should know about?
-
Hi Logan,
I've read the MOZ guide but it doesn't answer one question and I cannot find an answer anywhere else...
Can hreflang tags be used to specify just ONE country (eg. "en-au"), or does it only work as an alternative to another language/region variation?
-
To target:
- Australia
- All other countries
I'm proposing to use a combination of ccTLDs along with hreflang tags.
The developer is also keen to use IP forcing as well - just to be sure!
Anybody spot any potential issues or conflicts here?
-
Thanks Roman.
The site is run on Shopify, so no access to htaccess file.
The devs were looking at forcing one site or the other based on IP address. That sounds fine to me, but how does it stop Google indexing and ranking the two domains (domain.com and otherdomain.com) side by side in the same SERPs?
-
Have you ever try with schema, could help you point "Other countries" by region, define currencies and so on
http://schema.org/regionsAllowed
http://schema.org/docs/search_results.html#q=currenciesIn your case I will check the regions/countries where the user are coming from and I put all my effores on the top 5
Example if we are talking about English
- USA
- CANADA
- UK
Another option is to force the redirect using some condition rule (regular expresions)
You have a webview-1 (Australia/ Australian Dolar)
You have a webview-2 (Rest of the wolrd/ American Dolar)So if the user is from Australia show the webview-1 and if not show the webview-1. I think you should consult with your dev team abut how to set up htaccess file.
-
Thanks Logan.
The 'all other countries' is the problem here. The client wants one domain for Australia, then another for 'all other countries'. The products are the same, the language is the same. the only difference is the currency.
And even though the Australian domain was specified in search console, it still appears alongside the other domain in Google searches for other countries.
-
You don't necessarily need to change domains to ccTLDs. There are a number of ways to help Google differentiate the location targets of 2 different sites. 2 of the simplest ways to do this are by specifying a country in Google Search Console and using hreflang tags. You will likely run into some issues by having a single domain targeting "all other countries".
If you haven't already, I highly recommend checking out Moz's guide to international SEO. This should provide you with all the methods for country targeting and from there you can determine what would work best for your situation.
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
-
Domain authority
Hi I Want to know why my website domain authority drop last month it is in 20 now it is in 18 i want to know what are the reasons.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | joaozzi0 -
Preserve domain on 301 redirect?
We have a domain solely used for print advertising that does a 301 redirect to a landing page (a department home page) on our "real" domain that is indexed on Google. Example: www.bmwrepairs.com redirects to www.repairshop.com/bmwrepairs. Is there a way to do a 301 redirect so that when they get redirected, the URL in the browser address bar remains www.bmwrepairs.com?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Jazee1 -
Domain Name Migation + HTTPS?
One of our clients is considering migrating their domain name _and _changing protocol (http to https), as well as changing hosting providers, at the same time. Is it fine to make the changes at the same time, or would you recommend 'phasing' the migration?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ThreeShips1 -
Do links to a domain that re-directs to my domain pass link equity?
Hi guys. We've recently taken control of a third-party site and we're going to set up a domain re-direct so any traffic comes to our site. With any existing links that the third-party site has, will these pass link equity to our main site through the redirect? Thanks, Paul
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kevinliao0 -
Is my domain scorched earth from Penguin?
http://pisoftware.com was never a huge leader of traffic, but it ranked top 5 for my money keyphrases, and was bringing consistent quality visitors. As traction went up, that traffic just became more valuable. I was happy. Then Penguin came along, and made me sad. 60% loss in traffic, I stayed calm. I disavowed. I sent emails asking for links to come down. I atoned for my sins (of the distant, distant past - I know better now) - and waited. Never a hard penalty, never an email from Google - just rankings that got hammered. From #3 for my best keyphrase for #25 today. I write content, and I try and write it better all the time. I try to make it valuable. I leverage social media to the extent that I can. I do outreach. I'm trying to be patient, but it's hard when the software is awesome, and so few people see it. I'm considering starting over - or maybe even just creating another domain to use if this one never comes back. I wonder on the thoughts of experts. At MozCon I talked to a lot of people in the same boat, and it seems we are all taking similar steps. So the questions: 1. Should I start over? Or stay the course? 2. What has worked for others - what seems to have been the most valuable in getting back on the rise? 3. Thoughts on the site as it is now? I've worked lately on speed, mobile rendering, etc - and it seems responsive and solid to me. Thanks in advance, you crazy bunch of Mozzers you. Kelly
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kellster0 -
No Results for Google/Bing Keyword Search by Domain Name
My site is bestwebconsult [dot] com When I do a search for my exact domain name in Google and bing, it does not appear at all. I have submitted a sitemap to Webmaster Tools. It is a relatively new site completed with in the last month. Built with Joomla. This leads me to believe that something is misconfigured on the website. Please advise, thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | crave811 -
Multiple 301 Redirects on the same domain name
Hi, I'd appreciate some advice ont he below. I have a website, say www.site.co.uk that has just been redesigned using a new CMS. Previously it had URLs in the format /article.php?id=123, the new site has more friendly urls in the format /articles/article-slug. I have been able to import the old articles into my CMS using the same article IDs and I have created a unique slug for each post. So now in my database, I have the article id (from the querystring) and a slug. However, I have hundreds of old URLs indexed by Google in the format /article.php?id=123 and need to redirect these. My plan was to do the following. 301 Redirect /article.php?id=123 to an intermediate page, in this case /redirect/123. On this intermediate page I would do a database lookup for the article slug, based on the ID from the querystring, create a new URL and perform a second 301 redirect to my new URL E.g. /articles/article-slug-from-database. Whilst this works and keeps the site usable for visitors the two 301 redirects do worry me, as I don;t want Google indexing lots of /redirect/[article id] urls. The other solution is to generate hundreds of htaccess redirect rules that map old url to the new url. The first solution is much cleaner, but the two 301's worry me. Will Google work this out on it's own, is there a better way? Any advice is much appreciated. Cheers Rob
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AmyCrompton1 -
Domains
I am currently working on a huge website which ranks very well receiving 150,000 visitors every day. I have been offered the chance to buy some more domain names which would suit my keywords in the current site. These domains as a keyword also receive huge amounts of traffic. Would it be beneficial for me to do this....if so why? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wazza19850