Hi there,

Maybe, it's likely that there are enough inbound links to the old domain, however it is worth checking whether the Domain Redirect that's in place is a 301 or a 302. If it's the later, get it changed to a 301 if you can.

Depending on your access to Google Webmaster Tools, it would be worth informing Google via GWT (if you can) of the change of address (domain) for the old site. This would help to speed up the full reindexing and removal of the old domain from Google's index.

Hope that helps,

Regards, Simon

Hi Duke

Thanks for the further info.

As the objective is to not rank better for brand terms, so rather it is to rank better for Non-brand terms, then it doesn't make any sense to focus inbound links on brand terms within the anchor text. That can be counter-productive towards those important Non-brand terms.

Brand is one of many factors when it comes to Search, which you seem to know already. The more brand mentions and links on brand terms, the more authority that brand acquires, in theory.

However that doesn't necessarily benefit Non-brand search.

So all-in-all, my advice is to focus link efforts on a natural blend of Brand and Non-brand links, catering for both is important.  Don't worry too much about changing existing branded links to non-brand, instead, focus on both types of links and anchor text moving forwards.

With best regards

Simon

Hi there

Changing the anchor text of inbound links that's already optimized for your non-brand target keywords will risk in reducing your rankings for those keywords; obviously depends on factors such as the quality of those inbound links, competition...

If you are already ranking top for your brand, then this doesn't seem like a worthwhile exercise to do, unless Brand is everything to your business.  If your brand is not ranking well, then by all means go for it for some existing inbound links.

If you can identify any inbound links on anchor text such as 'click here' or 'visit the website' then by all means try to get that anchor text changed, if the link is worth it.

In most cases, I'd suggest focusing on acquiring new relevant medium & high quality inbound links (natural links that is, not paid) with a variety of relevant anchor text, including both brand and non-brand.  This would be time better spent compared to changing existing links that may not help to achieve your goals;  increasing the number of relevant visitors to your site.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Great, you're welcome, glad to help