2 replies to this topic

[YaSO]

I'm pretty sure that many people already asked similar questions, but ... here's my version of the question.

So I have a site that has about 15,000+ pages indexed in Google. I plan to move this to a new domain; more like, I kind of need to do this for a couple of different reasons. What I plan to do is to set up the site in a new domain and once it's done, replace the site in the old domain with 301 redirect. More specifically, 301 redirect maps every single URL like

www .oldSiteDomain.com/abc/123/pageName

to

www .newSiteDomain.com/abc/123/pageName

q1. How long does Google take to index all 15,000+ pages from new site(domain)?

q2. How much traffic should I expect to lose while the complete transfer takes place?

And just one more related question.

q3. Set up the site in a new domain, keep both old domain and new domain up and running(no redirect from old domain to new domain), and when all 15,000+ pages from new domain get indexed, delete the old domain. This is No-No, right?

[Randy]

1. It varies. I've seen the actual indexing of the new site happen very quickly (over the course of a couple of weeks) and I've also seen it take up to 6 weeks for all of the new domain to get indexed.

2. It depends a great deal upon the timing of things. In other words, if the old site remains listed in the SERPs, even though it has been redirected, you won't see much if any drop off. On the other hand, if there ends up being a time where the old site has been dropped but the new site has not yet settled into the SERPs, there will be a drop in traffic.

3. Some people have done it that way, though you do run the risk of being flagged for Duplicate Content. The advantage is that traffic down time may end up being a bit less lengthy. The disadvantage is the duplicate content issue that may linger on afterwards. I don't have an opinion on which is the better approach.

What I've generally seen when doing something like this in the past is that the the old pages remain in the SERPs, even after the 301 is enabled. Typically, most if not all of the new domain seems to get spidered before the old pages finally disappear. That part doesn't seem to be too bad, considering.

The rub comes in where PR is concerned. It seems to take some time to get the PR to transfer to the new site. The time frame I always tell people to expect is 3-4 months for the process to be completed. Of course not all of that is time where traffic suffers since there is some overlap.

If you happen to get lucky and hit the timing just right (by sheer luck!) it could be less, but I wouldn't count on it.

[Michael]

It strikes me the rules on this have changed now with Google Dance syndrome the filter test edition...

URL:
http:// searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3114531

The gist of this is that Google puts any new URL on the shelf for 4 months, then your results reappear in the SERPs.

We're currently waiting for a site to be released from the filter test waiting period. Four months of waiting will end on June 2 and we're really looking forward to "getting out of jail" so to speak. So here's my problem, we've purchased a superior URL and wish to switch our domain name accordingly. Waiting another 4 months is pretty unattractive option from this vantage point.

We're strongly considering:

1) sending a few links the "new" URL (it's already forwarding to the current address)

2) then in four months, switching the domain.

What do you think?