Switching Site to a Domain Name that's in Use
-
I'm comfortable with the steps of moving a site to a new domain name as recommended by Google.
However, in this case, the domain name I'm asked to move to is not really "new" ... meaning it's currently hosting a website and has been for a long time.
So my question is, do I do this in steps and take the old website down first in order to "free up" the domain name in they eyes of search engines to avoid large numbers of 404s and then (in step 2) switch to the "new" domain in a few months?
Thanks.
-
Hi Tom,
I would never throw away traffic unless it came from a "questionable" source.
If the reason for the domain switch is because the domain more accurately reflects the client's business, then the existing traffic is also likely to be relevant. This gets you "one foot in the door" in terms of conversion.
If you still have the existing site loaded, then you are in a good position, because you already know the URL and content of the existing pages.
My recommendation to the client would be to do the work to salvage the existing traffic for the domain. How well you do the job will depend on how large the existing site is, how much traffic it has and how much work the client is willing to pay for,
The process would be to add 301 redirects for all existing URL's on the new domain (that will not exist once the new content is added) in addition to 301's for all of the pages on the domain that you are transferring from. The best way to do this is to ensure that each is redirected specifically to a page containing content that is relevant. Obviously, if the old site is large and/or the budget is small, this will be more work than you are getting paid for. In that case, you have the option of redirecting groups of pages to a relevant category page, or in the easiest, but least advisable, just redirect them all to the home page.
If the existing traffic to the new domain is insignificant, then you shouldn't lose too much sleep over just redirecting them all to the home page, but if there are some visitors there, I would explain to the client that sending them to a relevant page gives him a chance of converting them.
If you choose not to redirect any of the pages you are just setting up a situation where you constantly play "catch up' on the 404's - you cannot know how long it will really take for every link in existence to be clicked by someone. Don't forget that the biggest link source will be indexed pages in search engines. These don't always get de-indexed in the time frame we expect, so there is no correct time period within which links will just go away.
I wrote a blog post on this recently after doing a "salvage' job for a client whose designer installed a new site version and killed off all his old pages without redirecting anything. While your situation is different, It talks about redirecting for relevance, so might be worth a read.
Hope this helps
Sha
-
Hi Tom,
It would help if you can clarify the situation a little more...
It sounds like you are intending to replace the old site with content that is totally unrelated to what is currently on the domain. Is that correct?
The alternative would be that you are simply creating a new version or a site with similar type of content.
The approach will be different according to your situation.
Sha
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
-
1 multilingual site, 2 domains in different languages.
My client wants a multilingual site: English and Spanish but with a domain name in both languages: jorgewantstofight.com And jorgequierepelear.com Is it possible? To have 1 site with both domains pointing each one to its version? and how this affects SEO?
Technical SEO | | Trazo1 -
Why is the Dev site indexing and not my actual Domain
hi guys I had 2 word press sites built but since they went live a couple of things aren't working. 1.when I do a keyword search one of the sites comes back with the actual URL and when I do another keyword search for the same site the DEV site comes back indexed and not the actual URL. 2. The other site originally started indexing with the DEV site and not the URL and the developer tried to fix it and now it doesn't index at all. Its been long enough time for it to index. Both URL's are live when put into a browser. Any advice would be great Thanks Jamie
Technical SEO | | HLAS0 -
Why isn't our new site being indexed?
We built a new website for a client recently. Site: https://www.woofadvisor.com/ It's been live for three weeks. Robots.txt isn't blocking Googlebot or anything. Submitted a sitemap.xml through Webmasters but we still aren't being indexed. Anyone have any ideas?
Technical SEO | | RobbieD910 -
Shortening URL's
Hello again Mozzers, I am debating what could be a fairly drastic change to the company website and I would appreciate your thoughts. The URL structure is currently as follows Product Pages
Technical SEO | | ATP
www.url.co.uk/product.html Category Pages
www.url.co.uk/products/category/subcategory.html I am debating removing the /products/ section as i feel it doesn't really add much and lengthens the url with a pointless word. This does mean however redirecting about 50-60 pages on the website, is this worth it? Would it do more damage than good? Am i just being a bit OCD and it wont really have an impact? As always, thanks for the input0 -
How to properly change your website's address in Webmaster Tools?
Hi There,We've launched a new website and as part of the update have changed our domain name - now we need to tell Google of the changes: Both sites were verified in Webmaster Tools From the old site's gear icon, we chose "Change of address" As part of the "Change of address" checklist Google presented, we added 301 redirects to redirect the old domain to the new one But now that the 301 redirects are in place, Google can no longer verify the old site And because it can no longer verify the old site, Google won't let us complete the change of address form How do we tell Google of the change of address in this instance - and has anyone else encountered this?CheersBen
Technical SEO | | cmscss0 -
Using Drupal to Author Websites across 2 Domains
I am new to Drupal and as an organization we are considering using it to author both our corporate site and our blog. In the future we'd like our blog to live at a separate domain and I understand Drupal is capable of publishing across 2 domains. Does anyone know of any SEO implications to this type of infrastructure set up? Are there specific things to be mindful of when setting up the Drupal CMS across 2 domains? thanks for the assistance!
Technical SEO | | Hershel.Miller0 -
Best Way to change domain name
Hi, I have a driving instructor wordpress website called www.drivnglessonsbrightonandhove.co.uk, done a little link building. But before I start this properly, I want to change it to www.drivingbrighton.co.uk (as the first is too long to fit on the car etc!!!!) Whats the best way to do this? Is there a way to help keep its position in google as just got into top10 for different keywords?
Technical SEO | | Ant710 -
How to proceed with domain switch AND url change
Hi, in a few weeks we'll do a major change on our website. This involves over 1.5 million pages indexed in Google driving substantial amount of our traffic. Basically we have 2 types of changes: subdomain switches to domain:
Technical SEO | | TruvoDirectories
ex. product.company.com will become www.product.com
for this we know how to manage DNS and Apache rules different url patterns, basically replacing ugly urls by pretty urls
for this we have advanced 301-mapping rules set up Here is the question - what is best way to proceed with these 2 changes in order to preserve rankings and organic traffic: Do both changes simultaneously? First do url changes, than the domain switch Can you please share your thoughts?0