Changing/Updating Links

[rknuppel]

Hello everyone. I am in the process of changing my domain name and website name. Therefor, I need to change all of my backlinks if possible. What are the best steps for doing this?

Also, it seems that I have a TON of links in google that are all coming from the same place. I'm pretty new to all of this. I thought they were pulling my site from DMOZ or Google, but I can't seem to find my listing in either of these. But the link to my site is all over in other directories.

What should I do? If anyone could help I'd appreciate it.

[submitx]

I am sure this has been covered a million times, but the way to do is to use a 301 redirect. Your PR and links will be pointed to new domain automatically after a month or two, when the site is indexed. If you don't know how to do a 301 redirect, then look it up.

[graywolf]

I am in the process of changing my domain name and website name.

Beware the google-lag box, many before you who have gone this route have been caught in its trap.

[ryan26]

Just to make the point - there is no easy way to do what you are doing. No magical code. You will need to go back and manually ask for your link location to be updated. You can 301 redirect the old locations to the new, but you should most definitely have all of your external links pointing to their new location.

Also factor in the points made by submitx and graywolf, which beg the question - why are you moving the site?

[neuron]

I can show you where the magic is in all this, let me buy your old domain!

[rknuppel]

Well guys. Thanks a lot for you replies. I know it's a big task to change domain names, but I think it's needed. When I started my site I was young and had NO CLUE that it could be a successful website. I just threw it on a subdomain off of my personal homepage domain name. Now it has grown and has a lot of links and decent PR, but it is very un-professional to have it under the subdomain of my personal homepage. So I'm wanting to move it. Is this totally dumb to do? And why would anyone buy my "sub-domain" from me?

Thanks for all the help guys.

[Robert Charlton]

rknuppel - What hasn't been said explicitly in this thread is that if you changed your domain name right now, it's very likely -- because of the so-called sandbox effect -- that you'll lose all of your Google rankings. If your site depends on Google traffic for its success, it will cease to be successful.

I'd wait until this Google sandbox or lag phenomenom disappears and then change the domain, using 301 redirects as described elsewhere on the board. Chances are this will happen when Google migrates to a 64-bit architecture... hopefully sooner if they build an interim solution to expanding their index.

If you're in a hosting situation where you can't apply 301s, then you might as well change domains sooner rather than later... though I'd modify this advice to the extent that you should wait until a slow season, because you'll surely lose search traffic for a while.

In any event, you will need to continue owning your old domain for a number of years.

Also, it seems that I have a TON of links in google that are all coming from the same place.

Not a good situation to be dependent on links from the same place, and probably a lot of them aren't effective because of the similarity of source. I would use the Yahoo backlink command to get a more realistic picture of what your backlinks are, and then try to get these changed right after your move.

PS - Don't be selling subdomains to anybody. It would most likely put your entire domain in a precarious position.

[graywolf]

I can show you where the magic is in all this, let me buy your old domain!

If he won't buy it I will ;-)

Seriously I wouldn't drop and old domain that's ranking for any reason, PERIOD.

[Robert Charlton]

Seriously I wouldn't drop and old domain that's ranking for any reason, PERIOD.

When you're changing domain names, you're not exactly dropping the old domain... You're moving the existing links to the new domain and replacing the old one. Once the links are moved, what is it you're holding onto? It's that set of relationships that was important.

[graywolf]

Once the links are moved, what is it you're holding onto?

Terra-firma, fear the sandbox ... err ... google-lag

[webnerd]

I have a simular situation as this thread covers.
I also have a website that quite popular on my host site's sub-domain. Because I will be moving next year and will be using a new host I will no longer be able to continue with the old host site.
I would like to establish the site under a subdomain of my domain which exists on another hosting site where the rest of my web-sites are.

but the way to do is to use a 301 redirect. Your PR and links will be pointed to new domain automatically after a month or two, when the site is indexed.

So the solution seems to be is to run both sites parallel until the search engines point to the new.
Is that correct submitx? The sooner I start the better than.

[Robert Charlton]

graywolf - We're in agreement about not changing the domain right now, but I think we're talking past each other about the rest...

Once the links are moved, what is it you're holding onto?

Terra-firma, fear the sandbox ... err ... google-lag

If you fear the sandbox or google-lag, then don't redirect the domain right now. But once you've redirected it, it's no longer an independent entity. It's effectively gone.

You probably could resurrect it by removing the 301s after all the inbounds are physically changed and indexed and then rebuilding something on it... but it would no longer have the same web context it had when it was ranking.