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So what I did is that I started a new domain some 3 weeks ago and changed all my links to this new domain. I setup a 301 redirect on the old domain (still in my control) to my new domain as that was what was suggested as the best solution. Supposedly this was the best way to transfer rankings from an old domain to a new one.
Now Google has re-indexed some of my shop pages and the results are NOT good. I lost almost all my number 1 positions and have dropped a lot. Everywhere where the new domain is indexed in Google I have a couple of backlinks instead of the hundreds I had on the old domain...
I though 301 redirect was the way to let Google know that you have permanently moved domains? I did everything I could and all hundreds of backlinks are set to the new domain not the old domain. Why has Google not picked up on this? This is really disastrous, as explained in my previous message I need to be very strong in december as a major event at that time will generate about all revenues needed to keep our fan club alive for a year... timing could not be worst.
What do you recommend I do:
A) Wait for the links to the new domain to be recognised by Google thus lifting my current rankings?
B) Set my links back to the old domain thus hoping that Google will faster place back the old domain with the old ranking?
How soon can I expect Google to pick up on the link changes? It's so weird, when I add a page to my current sites they seem to be added to google within days, I get crawled a lot. When I change a domain it seems its not picking up on it at all.
If you have any suggestions then please tell me. 34.000 not paying fans are counting on me....
...you almost *always* get nailed hard when you move pages/sites...
Can you elaborate a bit on that statement, or provide some references to read up on?
Here's my siutation, at present... I have been working on a complete site redesign for a client whose site has historically ranked well in the SERPS. Friday evening (21Nov2003) we went live with the site, under a new host. I have .htaccess 301 Redirects set up for all of her old URIs, and they're working perfectly.
GoogleBot visited the site *briefly* late yesterday afternoon, spidering only a couple of 'minor' pages, and has since been back several times, spidering the site's pages, (inlcuding many top and secondary tier). None of these results are showing in the SERPs as yet however. (Note: All URIs are different, so I will easily be able to tell when the new site's pages are reflected).
Anyway... Seemingly cooresponding to the initial visit by GoogleBot, her position in the SERPs has dropped significantly!
So, the questions I'm trying to resolve are:
1) Was it the move of the site that has already affected her positioning?
2) Is it the Redirects that "did her in"?
3) Is there something in the redesign of the site that is having an adverse affect? (Note: Most of the content/site org has not changed. The redesign moved her from all static HTML, to dynamic PHP, using phpAdsNew to manage ads & banners. I have mod_rewrite rewriting URIs to static versions.)
4) Or is she being affected by the current Google Fiasco that is still on-going? i.e., The drop in positioning has nothing to do with the site move/redesign...
Any idea when my backlinks will get counted and when my ranking will be higher again? Weblog Experts reports Googlebot generating 30-40 hits per day on all three major sites that link to the new URL.
because we have to have the freedom to improve our algorithms
Well I just hope that Google picks up on the 301 before December 16th when Return of the King will rule us all...
Google spidered the old and new ones about 36 hours ago and.... hey presto about 6 hours ago all the new-widgets.com pages are there now in place of the old ones with pretty well identical SERPs (identical to what the old-widget.com SERPs were about 12 hours ago when I last looked).
In terms of the green PR bar - the new ones all have 0/10 (previously 3's and 4's).
I regret to say that I do not yet have the skills to check backlinks in Google (well actually... I think I read somewhere recently that they are unreliable so I didn't try too hard and also I don't have many backlinks anyway).
Admittedly I'm not in a highly competitive area of business but it's still significant enough (SERP 1/65,000; 3/228,000).
Also, I have not yet fathomed the intricacies of the different data centers (how do you do this please?).
I guess what I'm trying to say is "Do not abandon hope yet pgkooijman!".
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /subtopic.html
RewriteRule .* http://new-widgets.com/index.html [R=301,L]Perhaps a "wild-card" 301 is not as effective - but then it sounds like you've got a lot of pages?
(And.... apparently the "correct" thing to do now I believe is to remove the 301s so that GB gets 404s and removes the old pages and therefore does not suspect me of duplicate content... and by the way I have already removed the old pages from the server just in case I forget later :))
I did everything I could and all hundreds of backlinks are set to the new domain not the old domain.
How did you do that?
Did you contact hundreds of webmasters?
Am I right that most links are only from few sites?;)
Maybe same class C net, maybe devaluation of multiple links from the same 'site' (I know, Google <-> site, page blabla).
I think it's just coincidence with the 301 and your bad SERPs.
Florida Update brought us a big change of the algo.
