Change in handling the 301 redirect to new domain?

[toktok03]

Hi,

has anybody noticed a change in how Google deals with 301 redirects?

My customer has changed company's name and so he did with the domain name. The moving was prepared carefully, redirecting each URL to the new URL by using 301. - A procedure that always worked so far for other customers who changed their domains.
But this one dropped in ranking conciderably. Before redirect a top10 ranking for many keywords, after it the ranking went down to approximately 50-80 and some of them beyond 100.

It was in september when we changed the domain.

[loudspeaker]

Went through the same thing 2 years ago. Wait 10-12 months.

[tedster]

A procedure that always worked so far for other customers who changed their domains.

There are many factors that have always been in play - trust, backlink profile, history of the original domain. Your earlier, easier successes can happen but they can never be counted on.

One action that can shorten the time it takes to establish the new domain name is having both names in the same WebmasterTools account. Another helpful factor is good but still "natural" speed on new backlink growth. And then there's getting historical backlinks to switched to the new domain, rather than depending completely on the 301.

[toktok03]

Thanks to you guys for sharing your opinion.

So you think that the handling of 301 redirects is still the same. No doubt about that? But other factors only should be taken into account?

In general I agree with you, just wondered if there might be something new in handling 301 redirects. - I'd be happy if there wasn't though.

[tedster]

Well, some of those site-specific factors I mentioned are continually being adjusted, especially in the area of trust. So that would create a somewhat shifting, changing character. But nothing fundamental has changed in handling 301 redirects to new domains that I can see. We 301'd a domain in August and rankings/traffic is now back to about 70%.