Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
I'm considering changing a well established domain name, currently the domain has hyphens in it and unfortunately the domain without the hyphens has been taken and people get confused between the 2, also the new domain name chosen is more descriptive of what the site is about.
As an added complication the software that runs the site is in need of an update and this will mean that the format of all the internal urls will completely change.
I'm in a dilemma about changing the name though I believe that in the long run it will benefit the site more, but the short term and loosing traffic is very worrying so I'd be grateful of your opinions.
My feeling is that if the urls are going to change anyway with the update then I should just bite the bullet and change the name as well and 301 redirect all the existing urls through to the new domain.
Would you bite the bullet and change the name or would you just update the software?
With proper care, you can change the urls on an established domain with barely a bump in the road - maybe a couple weeks or so. But getting a new domain to take over the rankings for a previous domain is a whole lot more difficult. You can plan on months to rebuild traffic and income.
Not to say you might not want to launch the new domain - disambiguating yourself from that site that doesn't have hyphens might be the best long-term strategy. But do think deeply about it.
Not sure which of the changes did it, but we lost the site for 18 months in google!
Is your site US focussed, global or another specific region?
If you are going for the complete navigational reconstruction, will you be using identical on-page information or will you be changing those too?
If you have enough new and relevent information to create mostly all new pages then leave the exisiting site and concentrate on the new one until it is completed then make the decision whether to 301 the entire site or just leave it as-is.
They say it takes less time now. I don't know, because I haven't tried it again. Think about it a lot before you do it, and do it in an off season.
Definitely have all your backlinks prior to change noted down, and see what you can do to have them updated ASAP after the change, even with the 301s.
My feeling is that if the urls are going to change anyway with the update then I should just bite the bullet and change the name as well and 301 redirect all the existing urls through to the new domain.
I wouldn't make both changes at once. I'd update the site on the old domain first, let Google figure out that the old pages and the new pages are the same content. Once that's settled for a while, then do the domain change if you're going to do it.
Make sure the you don't have chains of rewrites when you do the latter.
The platform he was using did not allow a page by page 301 while having both sites on the same platform.
He choice was to take down the original site and do a page by page 301, or ride it out with a global.
He did the change with a global 301.
It took 3 months for the new site to take and recover his old postions.
...3 months...
minnapple - That's good news. How long ago was this? My experience was a few years back. I haven't wanted to do it again, and no one's pushed me hard enough.
