Hello all, I would like to start by thanking everyone for the great discussion and commentary. I've learned more by browsing this forum for the past three days than I've managed to pick up in...well, forever, on my own.
I'm coming at the whole SEO and marketing thing from a markedly different angle than most here: I don't sell anything, and I don't exist to generate revenue. So, naturally, my promotion and such has to be carefully targeted.
With that in mind, my site is basically an info portal to dance clubs and nightlife in the city of Milwaukee. A google search for "Milwaukee Dance Club" returns a little geocities site that belongs to some swing dance club. I've contacted the owner, and they may be willing to give me control of the site in exchange for a new domain and some web design.
My question is: How would I best make use of this aquisition? Obviously I want to keep the ranking, but brand it as my own. Could I just change the page title and set it up as a redirect to my own site, or is there a better way?
Thanks!
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Redirecting High Ranked Domains?
Started by
clubmilwaukee
, Mar 24 2004 11:17 AM
7 replies to this topic
#2
Grumpus
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Posted 24 March 2004 - 11:43 AM
It's hard on free host sites because you don't have a lot of control over how you do things.
I'd imagine that the best way would be to just replace every page with a link to the corresponding page on the new site that says, "Such-and-so has moved to a new domain." And maybe add a meta refresh. On the other hand, though, if the page is ranking because of content rather than just the title and inbound links, you may want to reconsider this tactic. I didn't check to see how competitive the term was...
G.
I'd imagine that the best way would be to just replace every page with a link to the corresponding page on the new site that says, "Such-and-so has moved to a new domain." And maybe add a meta refresh. On the other hand, though, if the page is ranking because of content rather than just the title and inbound links, you may want to reconsider this tactic. I didn't check to see how competitive the term was...
G.
#3
clubmilwaukee
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Posted 24 March 2004 - 12:11 PM
So, it is tricky. Drat.
I guess my main concern really is to change the appropriate parts of the site so that the actual google listing returns headings etc. that match MY content, not what's on the site now.
Something else I thought of was making the changes, and then adding a tag to basically tell google not to reindex me for a while. Would that make any difference?
I guess my main concern really is to change the appropriate parts of the site so that the actual google listing returns headings etc. that match MY content, not what's on the site now.
Something else I thought of was making the changes, and then adding a tag to basically tell google not to reindex me for a while. Would that make any difference?
#4
Grumpus
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Posted 24 March 2004 - 01:02 PM
I'd treat 'em as two different sites. Take the new site and start from scratch. Leave the old site in existence. It's still likely going to rank well (but again, it depends upon the term).
Let's look at one that we were looking at a few weeks ago. I recently had to build a forum site for a private school alumni association. When doing that, I realized that my old high school had nothing on the web other than their cheesy web site and a site that a friend who graduated a year behind me had put up for her graduating class in specific. So, I copied my work over, put my school name on it, and uploaded it.
After talking with Jen (the girl who built the class of '87 site for my school), I noticed that she had originally put her site up on Geocities and then a year or so ago, had moved it to its own domain. Now, this is a very non-competitive term, but if you plug in "Northwestern Regional 7" (no quotes needed) into Google, that her Geocities site (3rd unique site on the page) outranks her new page (3rd from last on the page). She removed all content from the geocities page other than a link to the new site. The Geocities page still does well, though - presumably because of the DMOZ link, but there are others scattered around, too. (NOTE: neither site ever had any SEO done to it, so.....)
You're simply not going to be able to do a proper 301 redirect out of a Geocities site. You don't have access to any tools that can do that (at least you couldn't in the past, maybe that's changed, but I doubt it...). So, your only choice is to link. PR will pass through the link from any links that may still be out there. Over time, as your new site gains more links (and maybe a background effort to try to get some of the current inbound links changed to the new location) your new site will start to outrank the old site. Until it does, though, I'd leave placeholders on the old site to direct the folks to the new home.
It's a tough call, but I'd treat it as "I'm making a brand new site and I have the advantage of being able to take any traffic from the other site and direct it to this new site." It's an enviable position to be in even though, in a perfect world, you could leverage it to be even more beneficial. This ain't a perfect world tho.
G.
Let's look at one that we were looking at a few weeks ago. I recently had to build a forum site for a private school alumni association. When doing that, I realized that my old high school had nothing on the web other than their cheesy web site and a site that a friend who graduated a year behind me had put up for her graduating class in specific. So, I copied my work over, put my school name on it, and uploaded it.
After talking with Jen (the girl who built the class of '87 site for my school), I noticed that she had originally put her site up on Geocities and then a year or so ago, had moved it to its own domain. Now, this is a very non-competitive term, but if you plug in "Northwestern Regional 7" (no quotes needed) into Google, that her Geocities site (3rd unique site on the page) outranks her new page (3rd from last on the page). She removed all content from the geocities page other than a link to the new site. The Geocities page still does well, though - presumably because of the DMOZ link, but there are others scattered around, too. (NOTE: neither site ever had any SEO done to it, so.....)
You're simply not going to be able to do a proper 301 redirect out of a Geocities site. You don't have access to any tools that can do that (at least you couldn't in the past, maybe that's changed, but I doubt it...). So, your only choice is to link. PR will pass through the link from any links that may still be out there. Over time, as your new site gains more links (and maybe a background effort to try to get some of the current inbound links changed to the new location) your new site will start to outrank the old site. Until it does, though, I'd leave placeholders on the old site to direct the folks to the new home.
It's a tough call, but I'd treat it as "I'm making a brand new site and I have the advantage of being able to take any traffic from the other site and direct it to this new site." It's an enviable position to be in even though, in a perfect world, you could leverage it to be even more beneficial. This ain't a perfect world tho.
G.
Edited by Grumpus, 24 March 2004 - 01:19 PM.
#5
Jill
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Posted 24 March 2004 - 03:43 PM
Welcome clubmilwaukee! 
I'm thinking you might want to leave that site as is, since it ranks highly for the phrase you like. Then just put ads, or links to your site all over the place on it.
Jill
I'm thinking you might want to leave that site as is, since it ranks highly for the phrase you like. Then just put ads, or links to your site all over the place on it.
Jill
#6
clubmilwaukee
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Posted 24 March 2004 - 09:27 PM
Thanks for the great replies:
Jill, the problem is though, that the site I am aquiring is actually about a totally different topic. It's some kind of swing dancing social group, and my site is about Dance Clubs. Of the nightlife and DJ type. Still, your idea of just adding a whole bunch of links is worth thinking about. Thanks again.
Jill, the problem is though, that the site I am aquiring is actually about a totally different topic. It's some kind of swing dancing social group, and my site is about Dance Clubs. Of the nightlife and DJ type. Still, your idea of just adding a whole bunch of links is worth thinking about. Thanks again.
#7
Jill
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Posted 25 March 2004 - 12:39 AM
If you change it, chances are it will no longer rank highly for the thing you want it to rank highly for. Unless the only reason why it's ranking highly for that phrase is cuz of it's backlinks.
Just beware of that fact if you do buy it.
Jill
Just beware of that fact if you do buy it.
Jill
#8
clubmilwaukee
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Posted 25 March 2004 - 01:16 AM
Good point. Maybe there's not really any point in me getting it then, since I want it more for the fact that it's the number one search result rather than for it's PR, which is not very high.
By the way, have to say thanks as well for introducing me to Invision Power Board. I spent the day installing it and it's great.
By the way, have to say thanks as well for introducing me to Invision Power Board. I spent the day installing it and it's great.
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