3 replies to this topic

[njoynlife]

Have a question for anybody that may have the answer here.

We have had a couple of websites change their domain name from a previous domain to a new
For example:

downunderwatersports.com ->stjohn-diving.com
pariscarrental.com -> rentalcarstjohn.com

(where locale = the region/city of course)

The actual hosting account was then updated so that the site is technically
hosted on the new domain name, and the previous domain name was set up as a
parked domain (301 redirect) in order to prevent any possible confusion.

Months have passed, and Google is still indexing the old domain names,
however, and these sites are not reaping the benefits of the new domain
name as a result. I am aware that changing a domain name isn't normally
recommended, but these sites were doing rather poorly on search results anyway.
The sites were resubmitted to Google, and even used Google Verify to verify
the sites, yet the search results are still showing the old domain names.

What are we doing wrong for indexing the proper domain name now vs. the former one? Am I
missing a step here?

Any help or advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated!

[donp]

Changing domain names isn't usually a way to get better rankings, if it's the same site that wasn't doing well before in the rankings, no reason it should do much better now, other than maybe a little better geo ranking if you are using the business main keyword and location in the title.

Can't remember where I heard this pearl (forgive me JW) but it's all about content.
I'm not sure how a name change was supposed to perform miracles in rankings, but better content sure would go a long way.

[Randy]

I'd double check your 301's to make sure:

a. They're actually delivering a 301 Moved Permanently server reaponse.
b. That a 301 is being delivered for every page of the old domains.

Something doesn't sound right in what you describe if the old domains are still getting crawled and indexed. The last similar move I made of some of my sites was last October. By mid-February the old domains had been completely deindexed. Even after just a month or so the only thing that showed up when I did a site: type of search returned only the home page.

[mickmel]

downunderwatersports.com ->stjohn-diving.com
pariscarrental.com -> rentalcarstjohn.com

Are those your real URLs or just examples? Neither one has a 301 on it...