13 replies to this topic

[Hichem]

Hi ..

Do you think buying an exact match domain name (.com) , building some links to it and redirecting it (301) to a sub page in my website that I optimize for that keyword will help my subpage rank better for that keyword ?

Thanks

[Jill]

Not in the least. If it's redirected, then it doesn't exist.

[MrLinkBuilder]

Let me get this right...you mean you are building links to your doamin name . com (which is your index/home page) and then redirecting to your sub-pages to improve your rankings?
It seems to me you are doing Black hat technique. If you really want to rank your inner pages you have to think your website not as a whole. You have to treat all of your WEBPAGES as individuals. Meaning you have to build links to all your webpages with the keywords you want to rank high for and optimize each one of them.

[keyon]

This is one of those topics that I think people often get confused about. Hopefully Jill can weigh in on this, but from what I know, the original concept was that if you had bought an existing website -- with it's own history of existing links (the operative word here being "existing"), but you didn't really want to develop or manage that website (in addition to the other sites you already have), then, theoretically, you could derive some value from the purchase by redirecting the domain to one of your other sites -- thus passing a certain amount of "link juice" on to another site.

However, a new domain with no backlinks doesn't have any "link juice" per se to send anywhere.

I'm not sure if any of this even works anymore (or if it did at all). Hopefully Jill can elaborate.

[Jill]

Well google claims to reset all the links when a domain is bought so that they would no longer count when you redirect.

[keyon]

Well google claims to reset all the links when a domain is bought so that they would no longer count when you redirect.

Hi, Jill....can you explain more about what you mean by "google claims to reset all the links..."?

What happens when someone decides to change domain names? I think most people are under the impression that a fair amount of authority will be passed on to the new site if the redirect is working properly. And Google certainly gives the impression (in GWT) that a domain name change is no big deal -- just send them a "change of address" and everything will be fine (of course we all know it's not that simple).

[Jill]

If you purchase a previously owned domain and change the ownership records, then you can't be sure that the old links from the old site which the previous owner had, will continue to be attributed to the now new site under new ownership.

I'm not sure how to make it any clearer than that. Do a search for something to do with that and Matt Cutts name as he's discussed it before.

[keyon]

Yeah...I guess I've read some of M. Cutts' comments (although somewhat vague) on this, like:

From M. Cutts:
Google tries to handle links appropriately for domain transfers.

But this is another one of those things where you have to wonder "do they really do that?"
For example, does Google really take the trouble to check/compare domain registration records every time it encounters a redirected link? That seems unlikely to me.

By the way, here's a related article from a couple years back:
http://searchenginel...th-google-17811

[Jill]

But this is another one of those things where you have to wonder "do they really do that?"

Yes. That's why I stated that Google "claims" to do that.

[keyon]

Yes. That's why I stated that Google "claims" to do that.

My apologies to Hichem for highjacking this thread...

But before I leave, I'd be curious to know what people think about the idea of redirecting one domain to another.
I've always known there were certain SEO risks involved, but after researching the issue in more depth, now I'm thinking it's just a really bad, bad idea. There seems to be way too many unknowns about how Google actually "handles" the old link profile, if they do anything at all with it. I'm three months into a domain change of my own, and after losing 80 percent of my Google traffic, I'm tempted to change everything back the way it was.

[Jill]

But before I leave, I'd be curious to know what people think about the idea of redirecting one domain to another.

Redirecting a domain when you're changing the brand of your company is fine. Redirecting a domain for SEO purposes because you're trying to pass link popularity from some other unrelated site would be considered web spam.

[keyon]

Redirecting a domain for SEO purposes because you're trying to pass link popularity from some other unrelated site would be considered web spam.

Yes....I understand that. However, let's assume we're not talking about sneaky tactics to manipulate the SEs, but more about your first example -- like changing the brand name. You say in this case that it's "fine" to redirect. I'm not sure what "fine" means exactly, but I suspect there are some possible negative consequences to consider before switching domains, even for those of us who are doing it for non-spammy reasons. That's the conversation I was wanting to have.

[Jill]

You say in this case that it's "fine" to redirect. I'm not sure what "fine" means exactly, but I suspect there are some possible negative consequences to consider before switching domains, even for those of us who are doing it for non-spammy reasons.

If you do it right, it's not a problem. Google provides you with tools to help within your Webmaster Tools account.

It's not the switching of domains that's typically the problem in these cases. It's usually that the site owner has completely changed the structure of the website and thus each page/URL now has a completely different PageRank (the real kind, not toolbar) and their internal link popularity gets changed. This can have a major effect on rankings and subsequent search engine traffic.

But just changing domain names and keeping the exact same site, and redirecting it, and setting it up correctly in GWMT won't hurt rankings and traffic in the least. (Please note that many years ago it used to as all new domains were subjected to Google's "aging delay" but this is no longer the case.)

[keyon]

But just changing domain names and keeping the exact same site, and redirecting it, and setting it up correctly in GWMT won't hurt rankings and traffic in the least.

Thanks, Jill. I was hoping this might be the case, because I think there are a lot of people (like me) who simply want to change the domain name -- and keep everything else exactly the same.

Unfortunately it doesn't help to explain why I lost 80 percent of my Google traffic -- just two weeks after changing my domain name, but at least it's a factor that perhaps I can cross off my "what happened?" list.