Any recent experience with switching domain names?

[dataguy]

I've got a large UGC site with 100,000 pages covering a wide range of topics. It's been quite profitable in the past, but it has been hit hard by Panda. Despite a large dedicated core membership and a large number of organic backlinks, I can't say that it will ever rank well in Google again.

I've let go of all my employees and my wife got a job working for someone else. What's left is just barely enough revenue to justify me working on the site full-time.

The site also has a terrible name, which doesn't reflect any part of what the site does anymore. I've wanted to change domain names in the past, but there was too much at risk. Now that I'm the only one depending on revenue from the site, I'm revisiting the issue.

I'm under no illusion that changing domain names would release this site from Panda's grip. The thing is, I love what this site does, I feel like it's a benefit to society and it helps quite a few people. I'm happy serving the core membership there with my time, but I still need to pay my bills.

Sorry for the long story, but I'm wondering if anyone has recent experience with switching domain names and the resultant Google rankings. My understanding is that it takes about a week before the old listings disappear, followed by around a week of very low traffic. If all goes well, two weeks after the switch, traffic will return on the new domain.

I am technically adept and I'm confident I can get the proper 301's in place. I heard Matt Cutts talking recently that 301's don't pass 100% of the link juice, which kinda scares me. Is there a rule of thumb to expect, like maybe 80% of the traffic to return?

Any insight you can give would be appreciated.

[HuskyPup]

Sorry to hear of your problems dataguy.

I've never moved a domain site with 100k pages however I have moved a few with up to 1k with no problems whatsoever.

Those site moves were identical url for url, image for image and I did not 301 them myself I did them as a url-forward through my domain name registrars' control panel...for me a lot, lot easier and very clean plus GooBinHoo seemed to like it and quickly indexed the "new" site and deleted the "old" with hardly any loss in traffic.

As it so happens I'm about to do this to a 30k page site this next month, that'll be interesting!

[bhartzer]

When you move the entire site to another domain, even with 301s in place, it's like starting over. I wouldn't move to a new domain unless you can get a domain that is much better and more memorable--which nowadays could require a considerable investment.

301s don't pass the same amount of link juice they did in the past, I've seen 301s not pass ANY link juice, and seen others pass maybe 15 percent.

At this point, I would start thinking more about your overall site design and site structure, and usability for your users. And start thinking about relying more on traffic and revenue from something other than one search engine.

Just because Google makes a change that impacts your organic search traffic doesn't mean that you should abandon everything and start fresh with a new domain.

[FranticFish]

I've just done (last 48 hours) my first domain move for a few years. Far, far, far smaller site than yours, but so far it appears to be proceeding OK. New urls picked up within hours. I'll post back on rankings when I can see them, as so far old site urls still indexed so all rankings from there.

I've been told that the key nowadays is to avoid chained 301s, so spend time getting your redirects just right so they go from old url to new in one step.

Also as 301s do bleed PR, get your IBLs all plotted and arrange to transfer them over, and also go out and get some quality links to the new domain to help settle it in.

I'm actually pleased about this move. The old domain had some less than wonderful links from back in the day and this is my chance to leave them behind by only 'bringing over' the quality ones.

[bgizzle]

I moved a domain with over 400k indexed pages in January and it took about 3 weeks to recover to the full level of traffic.

[walkman]

Just because Google makes a change that impacts your organic search traffic doesn't mean that you should abandon everything and start fresh with a new domain.

Why stay with a name that may not get any meaningful traffic because of a Google penalty? I don't know of a site, especially commercial, that can write off organic traffic.

Rankings might return, or they might not and at some point you have to decide and make a move. He has already fired staff, wife gotten a job, presumably already changed a lot of things with no impact in rankings.

More on topic: Matt said that he thinks (how I read it) that some juice might be lost in the transfer.

[tedster]

Welcome to the forums, bgizzle. It's good to hear about such a successful move. Google certainly has improved in this are over recent years. I remember when there was no way around a six month traffic drop.

Did you take any special actions? And especially did you use the "Change of Address" form inside Webmaster Tools?

[dataguy]

Great information here, guys. FranticFish I'm anxious to hear how your site does in the coming weeks.

bharzter, webmaster tools shows that I have over 100,000 external links pointing to the site, most of them to interior pages. If I really thought changing domains was like starting over, I wouldn't even consider doing it, but apparently this isn't usually the case. I'd be interested in the evidence that it's like starting over.

My hat's off to you, bgizzle, hopefully I can do the same.

I have changed a lot of things on the site, some of the changes I've already changed back because the users didn't like the changes. I need the search engine rankings to pay the bills, but at some point a webmaster needs to go with what works for his or her users and forget about the search engines. I'm rapidly approaching that point, and I believe a domain name change would actually serve the users better. I'm just hoping to be able to eke out a living after changing domains.

[bgizzle]

Practically, I moved the domain and made sure to 301 all the old content to the new URLs. I kept all of the site structure the same except for the domain name, to make things easier for Google. I replaced all instances of the old domain with the new domain in on-site links. I also submitted a "Change of Address" request inside Webmaster Tools, but if I had to do it again, I would probably wait at least a week until the new domain is fully indexed before doing that because it appears to take effect immediately, but if the new pages haven't been indexed yet, you can lose the old ranking until its reindexed.

[tedster]

I also submitted a "Change of Address" request inside Webmaster Tools, but if I had to do it again, I would probably wait at least a week until the new domain is fully indexed before doing that because it appears to take effect immediately, but if the new pages haven't been indexed yet, you can lose the old ranking until its reindexed.

That sounds like a valuable observation!