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The old domain name was well indexed by Google (several hundred pages for sure), listed in all major directories and was the #1 result for the single word "widgets")
When the new site was launched, both the old and new domain name pointed at it (and still do). The site structure itself changed so radically that all the old pages in the index no longer exist with the same URL.
We 301'd the main domain name, along with the top 100 404 errors for the site and *all* the pages that were in the google index - pointing all to new relevant pages on the new domain, or to the homepage when no relevant page existed. The site launched in May, we did all this 301-ness this about 2 months ago and still _nothing_ from the new domain name in the Google index. We submitted the new homepage, sitemap and all main section pages to Google. Google is also not listing any backlinks for the new site - whereas we have 200+ on alltheweb and about 75 ea. on AltaVista, Hotbot and MSN.
Other notes: alltheweb has picked up the "splash page" [we have language selection] from the new domain for its index. Hotbot/inktomi has the splash, home and sitemap. That's it. Google has nothing.
Lost and confused.
-Bill
Thanks.
When the new site was launched, both the old and new domain name pointed at it (and still do). The site structure itself changed so radically that all the old pages in the index no longer exist with the same URL.
Hmmm. Hundreds of pages? Two domains pointing at the same files? You're playing with a SEVERE duplicate content penalty. Google doesn't like to see duplicate content from two different domains. Hope this helps.
Hmmm. PR7 or 8? I'd love to exchange links with your site...
Example:
old site: www.widgetsgalore.com/products/bluewidget.html
new site: www.excellentwidgets/blue-widgets/product-info.aspx
that plus a 301 at both www.widgetsgalore.com/products/bluewidget.html and www.excellentwidgets/products/bluewidget.html
to the new URL.
I'd say that we could turn off the old domain name - but it probably represents 200-500k in User Sessions per month depending on the time of year.
Any additional insight?
-Bill
PS - Sorry no link exchanges... would not be germane to the topic of the site.
I'd say that we could turn off the old domain name - but it probably represents 200-500k in User Sessions per month depending on the time of year
Turning off the old domain name is clearly a bad idea (so long as you are achieving some results out of the 200-500k sessions per month)! Why don't you just leave the old domain as is, and develop content on the new one?
Is Googlebot visiting the new site? What about the other SE spiders?
I did perform a similar exercise to this earlier in the year. It took Google 3-4 months to find and index new pages from that site. Even today (perhaps 6 months later), redirected requests are made for pages that don't exist (They are just caught by the site's 404 handler)
HTH
Why don't you just leave the old domain as is, and develop content on the new one?
The site is part of a large complex branding initiative - so leaving the old site live would have been confusing to users. (the old site was horrible from an User/content standpoint - it was just the *only* official site for this topic/content and therefore linked to from a lot of places.)
Is Googlebot visiting the new site? What about the other SE spiders?
Googlebot *is* visiting the new site - but not doing anything with the redirects (it just tries to visit old URLs). The site is built in ASP.NET so the ease of an .htaccess file is replaced with a complex system that redirects the user agent and sends it a 301 code. Also - as I mentioned before, some (1 or 2) of the pages are getting picked up by alltheweb and hotbot/inktomi.
Also interesting to note that all the old pages on the site are still listed in google - but SANS DESCRIPTIONS (which I believe google describes as partially indexed). I am betting the descriptions are gone because those pages have not been indexable for months. That would trouble me less if all our new pages were getting indexed.
Hearing that it took months for your site is somewhat reassuring - I guess we'll be patient and see what happens.
Thanks again!
-Bill
Cheers
Bernd
I think you should do something about your incoming links! and work on your old robots to apply to Google rules.
it just tries to visit old URLs
Just one thought, and something that I haven't tried yet. Perhaps you could put a summary page up using one of the old non-existent URLs. A bit like this ...
Old non existent pages ...
widgetsgalore1.htm
widgetsgalore2.htm
widgetsgalore3.htm
New pages ...
excellentwidgets1.htm
excellentwidgets2.htm
excellentwidgets3.htm
Upload a page called widgetsgalore1.htm to your new domain, and make it a page extolling the virtues of excellent widgets.
On this page, you would have links to excellentwidgets1.htm, excellentwidgets2.htm and excellentwidgets3.htm.
This might give Googlebot an extra opportunity to find the new pages.
I'd be quite interested in the results of this. I'll be moving a couple of domains from www.site.com/directory to www.newsite.com shortly, and will test this theory more thoroughly.
I'll make a note to post the results back here in a couple of months time :)
Taking old links out of circulation and acquiring more links pointing to the new domain will help Google will get over its confusion.
We have a similar situation where we just started to split a domain, i.e. part of the content stays at the old domain and part of the content is at the new domain
bkuemmer ... how long ago did you split the domain?
I think you should do something about your incoming links!
I'd given that some though for sure - one of our additional challenges is that our client, to some extent, just expects this to happen without addition time, effort or $$. They also just expected we'd "throw in" search engine placement with their site development project. That said, we'll likely give them a list of who points to the old side and as them to ask those site owners to point to the new site. Good Suggestion!
and work on your old robots to apply to Google rules.
I'm noste really sure what you mean by this?!?
Perhaps you could put a summary page up using one of the old non-existent URLs. A bit like this ...Old non existent pages ...
widgetsgalore1.htm
widgetsgalore2.htm
widgetsgalore3.htmNew pages ...
excellentwidgets1.htm
excellentwidgets2.htm
excellentwidgets3.htm
This seems like a good call... we have an extremely verbose and link laden sitemap and 404 error page, but I never thought about using the existing pages in the index purposes other than 301 redirects.
If you haven't already done so, invest some resources to contact everyone you can track down who is linking to any page on the old domain and ask them to update their links.
As noted above... we'll see if we can get the client on board with this. That will definitely help and will likely be a way for them to evangelize and get some PR (public relations) value out of the new site - via a series of simple emails!
Thanks again to all!
bkuemmer ... how long ago did you split the domain?
We started to establish 301 redirects about one month ago (I know that this is not much in "google-time"). We now had the first Googlebot visit on one of the redirected pages for the new domain, this might indicate that the redirects are registering, but it could also just be due to an external link.
