25 replies to this topic

[ideasunlimitedgoa]

Hi,

If i have site which has a page rank of say 4 or 5. This has a certain domain name. I also have with me a registered url which has my keyword in the url. If i rebrand the site with the new domain name will it affect my ranking or page rank. If i am not clear in what i am saying let me illustrate with an example. Suppose i have a site for used cars in london with domainname. carcareinlondon.com and now i rebarand the site with the domain name usedcarsinlondon.com how will it affect my site.

Please help

[Jill]

Changing to a new domain will cause you to have to wait out the aging delay.

Keywords in URLs aren't much help and aren't worth changing URLs for.

Toolbar PageRank isn't much help, and not worth changing URLs for either.

[Scottie]

how will it affect my site.

You will lose all your rankings for the old domain while you wait for the new domain to become trusted.

The keywords in the domain name will have little to no effect. Personally, I feel it's no effect at all, but on the off chance that lots of people link to your site using the actual URL as the anchor text, there might be a miniscule effect if you separate the words with -.

[Randy]

Yup, it's a really, really, really bad idea if there are some pretty powerful Business/Branding reasons for making the change.

If you do decide to swap domains plan on many months of pain.

[Cornbread]

What is the best way to get through the aging delay (besides waiting). Plus how long is this penalty? I have a site that is two months old, but I have a lot of good links and have a good ranking in Google already. Do you think the aging delay penalty is about to "kick in" or will my rankings just keep getting better. I am currently ranked #39 in Google and #7 on MSN, Yahoo hates me, I am around 150 in Yahoo.

[Jill]

What is the best way to get through the aging delay (besides waiting).

What do you have against waiting?

Anything else would be attempting to subvert the search engines. Do you time, it will be worth it in the long run.

[Cornbread]

I don't have time to do a lot of waiting. My goal is to be in the top ten in 90 days.

Well there is some debate in the SEO community that if you get a lot of traffic, optimize properly, build your site with a lot of solid unique content, and gain quality, authoritarian links, that the aging delay might not apply to you. This might be coming to fruition since my site is now ranked #23 in Google after only two months. Or am I getting ready for the big fall any minute from the dreaded aging delay sandbox penalty?

If Google does hit me with the aging delay punishment I will become very angry and might even delete Google off my computer and tell all my friends to quit using Google.

[Jill]

I don't have time to do a lot of waiting. My goal is to be in the top ten in 90 days.

Then you need to be in a new business. End of story.

[chrishirst]

If Google does hit me with the aging delay punishment I will become very angry and might even delete Google off my computer and tell all my friends to quit using Google

It's not a "punishment", It's a system that stops people getting to be top in 90 days

[Jill]

If Google does hit me with the aging delay punishment I will become very angry and might even delete Google off my computer and tell all my friends to quit using Google.

I'm sure that will scare Google into changing their evil ways...

[Cornbread]

Your goals are to low Jill. Not everyone even believes in the "aging delay" as a hard and cold fact for a 9 month long wait. If you do have a top 20 web site then why should you have to wait 9 months for some arbitrary time to elapse to get the proper ranking that you deserve. No one is taking about any black hat techniques like link farms or anything. My theory is, if you cross all your Ts and dot all your eyes, and basicaly make your web site one of the best in your field, you will defeat the aging delay, with quality links and quality, unique, properly optimized content. And, I am out to prove it. If you seen how far I have came in two months you would be shocked.

[Jill]

If you do have a top 20 web site then why should you have to wait 9 months for some arbitrary time to elapse to get the proper ranking that you deserve.

You shouldn't. But unfortunately, we don't make the rules, Google does. The aging delay is a fact of life when you're dealing with competitive to moderately competitive words.

My theory is, if you cross all your Ts and dot all your eyes, and basicaly make your web site one of the best in your field, you will defeat the aging delay, with quality links and quality, unique, properly optimized content.

That's a lovely theory. Let us know how it goes.

[Cornbread]

OK Jill, thanks for your patience and understanding with me as I struggle with being newbie. I will let you know how it goes, but before I started, and as I was developing my web site I was reading all these posts and most of your work, so I think that has given me an advantage. Answer me this, if you could build your own site from scratch, in a very narrow field, with just a few key phrases and had almost instant access to the very best links on the planet in that specific field, plus a Yahoo Directory listing, Best of the Web and a DMOZ listing, and already had a popular well ranked blog to tie in with the new site, then how could you do in two months?

[Jill]

in a very narrow field, with just a few key phrases

Sounds like you're talking about very uncompetitive phrases then, which are not as affected by the aging delay, apparently.

[Cornbread]

I don't think uncompetetive would be a good description, it covers the NFL Draft which is an annual event. There are tons of other web sites covering that event but only so may ways to describe it. But anyway, back to topic. Does Yahoo use the aging delay? It seems to me that they have a stronger aging delay than Google.