8 replies to this topic

[bump]

Hello all,

I have a client who had 2 sites covering 2 similar yet separate markets. When they decided to move into a few more markets, we decided to merge the two sites into one and add the new markets. The merged site is on a new domain since the old domain names were market specific. So I registered a new domain, merged the sites (no duplicate content), added the new markets, put it on line on a new hosting account and set-up 301 redirects for every page on the old sites.

Things were moving along fine until this weekend when the old pages were dropped from google and now the new domain is practically invisible. allinurl on the new domain shows all the pages so we are still in the index. allinurl on the old domains shows no pages (and rightly so).

While the old domains' pages were still in the index, content for the newly created markets as the old was doing well in google. Now the site doesn't show up in the top 100 for anything.

The links to old domain A show as 66.

The links to old domain B show as 45.

The links to the new domain show as 66.

We are working on getting sites linking to the old domains to change to the new domain.

Any thoughts on what went wrong here? And most importantly, how we can correct it?

Thanks.

[Jill]

You've done it just right. You just need to give it a few more weeks for all of Google's databases to catch up and for everything to stick.

Just realize that the other engines don't treat 301's the same way as Google does. You may find your site showing up under the old domain name in Yahoo and MSN. No biggie, just frustrating.

Jill

[bump]

Thanks for your reply, Jill.

Am I right in assuming that the new domain will inherit the old domains' page rank and not really be considered a brand new site?

Right now the only page with any pr is the home page. All the other pages are pr0 - including new pages and pages moved over from the old sites.

One thing I am concerned about is that the brand new content on the new domain was doing quite well for a couple of months while the other sites were still in the index. Now they are nowhere to be found. This shouldn't really have anything to do with the old sites as they were not linked in any way to the new site.

Any more thoughts on this?

[Jill]

Am I right in assuming that the new domain will inherit the old domains' page rank and not really be considered a brand new site?

Yep it should. With Google at least, if you set up the 301 correctly, all the links from the old domain should count towards the new domain.

[bump]

I'm bringing this back up because the site is not doing well at all. And now on google I see something strange regarding back links. As I said before, the backlinks for the old domains were 66 for one and 45 for the other. When I posted earlier this week, the new domain was showing the 66 links (I assume they were the same as the 66 to one of the old domains).

Now it is only showing links to the new domain and pr has dropped. The links are now 48, almost all of which are internal. I am working on getting sites linking to the old domains to change, but it will take time. I thought that with the 301 redirect things would transfer over smoothly.

When Jill says "if you set up the 301 correctly", I can only answer that I think I have it set up correctly. On each of the old domains, in the htaccess file I have

Redirect permanent "/filename.htm" http://www.newdomain.com/filename.htm

And this works fine. I tested each and every file by doing an allinurl in google and clicking on the link to make sure it went to the proper file on the new domain.

In light of the change in links as mentioned above, I ask again, did I do something wrong?

Thanks!

[Jill]

Now it is only showing links to the new domain

That's what it's supposed to do, no?

Jill

[Ron Carnell]

Looks to me like you did just fine. You should not, however, expect instant results.

Changing domains, like most decisions we make, carries a cost. You should generally expect at least a month of reduced traffic when switching domains, while all the records and pointers in various SE databases are updated, and that can easily drag out to several months. It's simply the price we pay for correcting our mistakes.

Patience.

[bump]

That's what it's supposed to do, no?

Well, that is not exactly what I expected. I thought the links showing up in google would transfer over to the new domain. For example, while the old sites were still in the index, the new domain was showing 66 links (though it really didn't have any), the same number as one of the old domains. Now that the old domains are no longer in the index (due to the 301), neither are the links to the new domain.

Will the links to the old domains eventually be attributed to the new domain? Or will they only count if I get the site owner to change the link to the new domain?

Was there a better way to handle all this?

[Jill]

Oh. They will. But as Ron said, it takes a few months.