Removing OOP with Domain move - Is Change of Address tool good or bad?

[thudufushi]

Hi Folks,
Not sure anyone will have an answer for this one but here goes.

We have a site which we think may have an Over optimisation penalty causing the homepage not to rank for the most competitive terms (internal pages rank well) and Ive checked all technicals regarding the homepage.

So in an attempt to move on with life in google we have moved the site to a different domain (just a different tld). All 301s are in place.

My question is this, should we use the Google Webmaster Tools 'change of address' tool as well , I am just concerned that it could pass on any penalty where the 301s alone may not?

Thoughts?

[goodroi]

I personally have not handled OOP the way you have mentioned. I typically look at the areas that have been overworked and then add more variety to bring it back to where I like it to be.

If you have properly setup the 301 redirects and Google is already following them, then IMHO there is not a big reason to use "change of address". Is your new site ranking?

[thudufushi]

Thanks, its only taken 24-48hours and now the new domain is ranking, mostly outranking the old domain, I opted not to use the change of address tool, dont really see why its necessary.

[Planet13]

@ thedufushi:

...its only taken 24-48hours and now the new domain is ranking, mostly outranking the old domain

That seems pretty quick... AND pretty painless. The new URLs are already indexed in google after only two days?

How is the new homepage ranking for the competitive term for which you were trying to rank?

@ goodroi:

...and then add more variety to bring it back to where I like it to be.

I assume that means something along the lines of "de-optimizing" the text, as well as maybe adding diversity in keywords for internal links (and other links under your control) pointing to the penalized page, right?

If so, how long does it take to see results? And does the page just come out from under the penalty (and rank poor to average in the SERPs)? Or are you able to get it to rank well after the de-optimization?