5 replies to this topic

[JWG]

I have a client that redesigned its 20,000 page site and moved it to a new domain 5 months ago using 301 redirects. Organic traffic dropped 50% immediately after the change. I learned yesterday (groan) that they will undertake a project early next year to simplify all of the URLs on the new site. 301 redirects will be used.

Questions:
1. Will changing URLs so close on the heels (5 months) of a domain change cause the 301s, spiders, etc to be less reliable than they normally would be?
2. What further impact on organic traffic should we anticipate?
3. What recommendations might any of you have to minimize organic losses?

Thanks in advance.

[Jill]

1. Will changing URLs so close on the heels (5 months) of a domain change cause the 301s, spiders, etc to be less reliable than they normally would be?

It shouldn't. But I would highly suggest redoing the first set of redirects so that they point to the latest destination, not the interim one.

What further impact on organic traffic should we anticipate?

You shouldn't have seen any impact on traffic if things were done correctly with search engines in mind.

[JWG]

Thanks for earlier response. One more question... are 301s more effective passing PageRank and links in URL changes than they are in domain changes?

[Jill]

They're just as effective for both these days.

[JWG]

It shouldn't. But I would highly suggest redoing the first set of redirects so that they point to the latest destination, not the interim one.

Turns out the first redirects (the ones associated with the domain change) were 302s. Client plans to switch them to 301s when they implement URL shortening in Jan. Doing it this way has decimated organic traffic.

Your earlier response seems to imply that that doing 301s for the domain change and replacing them 6 mos later with 301s pointing to the pages with new shortened Urls would have been preferable. Right? Any downside to using 301s for both?

[Jill]

I would change those 302s asap to 301s.