5 replies to this topic

[JakeG]

Hi,

I have a client which recently changed domain name (around 6 months ago), the old domain was redirected to the new one via a 301 redirect. The rankings for many keywords dropped when the domain changed and still have not recovered. Is it likely that I am still waiting for the PR from the links to the old domain to be transfered to the new one (there were around 1000 links to the old domain, the new one now has around 200 - all natural links).

Jake

[JakeG]

Hi,

I've just noticed something weird going on which may explain why rankings still haven't recovered.

The old domain was:

www.old-domain.com

This is getting 301'd to www.new-domain.com

But this is getting 301'd again to www.new-domain.com/home/index.asp

So if you look in the title bar, you get www.new-domain.com/home/index.asp BUT Google has cached www.new-domain.com. Could the two redirects here be causing a problem? Should I set it up to redirect straight from www.old-domain.com to www.new-domain.com/home/index.asp or would it be better to have the homepage without any file extentions? I'm confused!

[Randy]

If the new domain needs to do the additional redirect you'd be better off pointing the old domain's redirect to the same location. There's no need to force people and spiders through two redirects.

As a general rule the time frame I've seen for PR transfer from one domain to another seems to take 4-6 months. realize however this doesn't necessarily mean the new domain will jump up to the old ranking position of the old domain at the 6 month mark, especially if the new domain is truly new. Transferring PR/LP is not the same thing as transferring age, authority and other things that can go into why a site ranks where it ranks.

[JakeG]

Thanks Randy,

I've just found out something else, the new domain they are using used to belong to another company - they bought it from them because they had the same brand name. This means that it is not a new domain in the sense that it has just been registered but it used to have totally different content. Do you think this may slow down the process of transfering rankings?

Jake

[Randy]

Depends Jake. If the old company had anything questionable on there (eg cloaking and such) that attracted a penalty you may even have to request reinclusion. This would be pretty rare though, so I wouldn't immediately jump to this conclusion unless the domain is obviously being held down by a penalty.

On the other hand, depending upon when the domain purchase happened the new domain may have been reset by Google. They say they do that when a domain is bought and sold. Though I think they must miss that one as often as they catch it, if the domain never technically expires. If it has been reset it's exactly like working on a brand new domain.

[incrediblehelp]

Hi,

I have a client which recently changed domain name (around 6 months ago), the old domain was redirected to the new one via a 301 redirect. The rankings for many keywords dropped when the domain changed and still have not recovered. Is it likely that I am still waiting for the PR from the links to the old domain to be transfered to the new one (there were around 1000 links to the old domain, the new one now has around 200 - all natural links).

Jake

To bad you didn’t know that before you took the job. Changes a lot of expectations on their side. Anyways. I always felt the stronger the URL was the quicker it would be updated. Meaning the URL was getting spidered daily, good traffic and solid back links then that would increase it chances of being updated from a 301 redirect faster. That makes sense. So the for deeper URLs that have less IBLs and less traffic and get spider maybe a couple of times a month will update FAR slower