Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Rebranding a Website to a new Domain Name
-
Hi All,
I'm looking to rebrand my current website to a new domain name.
In short the current website has out grown it's potential. The domain name is not memorable nor is it attracting a wider audience.
I will create my new website and 301 redirect the old website to the new, hence pass SEO value.Google Places
Having spoken to Google they tell me that I can simply change the URL in Google Places to the new URL.Articles on my current website
I have a number of rich content articles on my current website, can I simply create my new website and copy & paste these previously written articles?Google+, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
What should I do for accounts associated with the current website?Any other useful information would be much appreciated.
Regards Mark
-
If you do have links sending traffic, those should be the first to update to avoid the slight but unnecessary burden and delay of a redirect. For Google, though, it doesn't really matter. As long as you 301 the whole site correctly to new URLs and change the address in Webmaster Tools, there will be no additional load time.
It's true that you want to avoid big .htaccess files, redirect chains, and inefficient redirects, but that's a rule for live sites. For example, if you were wanting to maintain the domain but move the entire category around, you wouldn't want to add 3000 lines to .htaccess. You should still write a rule rather than going line by line, but it doesn't really matter if it's on an old site that's moving. Search engines will only have to access it once per bot before they get the message and start crawling the new site.
In any case, redirects from the old site to the new won't impact load time unless the redirect is happening all the time, which should never be the case in a site migration. Do make sure to get the right redirect rule and check that it's working, especially on your most-trafficked pages.
-
Where possible it's best to group your URLs with pattern matching. If you're only changing the domain name and no other aspect of the URLs you should be able to handle all redirects with one line of code. This is linked in the guide I posted: www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php - scroll down for htaccess (but double check that's the correct formatting for page-to-page redirects).
-
Hi Ruben and Alex,
Many thanks for the great advice.
I'll be making a strong coffee and reading your article very shortly! ... Thanks Alex for the link.I have one question that comes to mind.
You redirect many urls via your .htaccess file.
Your .htaccess file growns in size.
Search engines take considerably longer to read and process this information.Surely the read + process overhead would be classed as poor site speed and therefore subject to some form of penality by the gods of Google?
Regards Mark
-
For when you launch the new website, Google have a change of address tool:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/83106?hl=enAs mentioned, 301 redirecting the exact old page to the exact same new page is the most important step. Plan ahead and map out your 301 redirects. You want to be sure of what's happening when the domain is transferred to give your rankings and traffic the best chance of remaining intact (or even increasing, which I've seen with some website redesigns).
I think you can change your Twitter handle more than once. If you have a good existing following I'd recommend updating your existing profile to the new handle, and (if possible) re-registering the old Twitter handle at another account - linking in the bio to your new Twitter account. That'll make sure you retain some of the link authority your current Twitter profile has built up and ensure people can still find you through any old links. I think custom Facebook URLs can be changed once.
I actually wrote a site migration guide last week, there should be a few points in there you'll find useful: insideonline.co.uk/website-migration-guide/
-
Moz actually wrote a detailed post about their transition (your probably already read it, but in case not, it's easy to find). Also, just because you 301 the exact page, does not necessarily mean you will rank as highly with the new page as you did the old ones...at least not in the beginning, that's for sure.
Best,
Ruben
-
Hi,
Thank you for your response.
I'm glad to see that you can simply 301 the exact old page to the exact new page.My fears were that all the hard work and cost associated to creating these feature rich articles would be wasted.
I suppose this is exactly how large organisations would tackle such a move. To mention an example SEOMOZ to MOZ.I would appreciate any further information from anybody who has experienced such a move and how they carried out the migration. Additionally and issues and drop in traffic resulting to a new domain name move.
Thanks in advance
Mark
-
Hi,
If you copy and paste the article content, make sure you 301 the exact old page to the exact new page.
For your social sites, you could mention that you are moving to a new brand name soon and then the change over will be expected. For Google+ if you have already used a custom URL you currently can't change it (as far as I know) so you would be stuck with the old brand name.
Hope that helps.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Geo-Targeting Boroughs/Neighborhoods in New York
Is there a way to determine which boroughs/neighborhoods are drawing traffic in big cities like NYC and LA?Google Analytics lists all traffic under the city name, so New York, NY, gets 90%+ of the traffic.
Local Website Optimization | | GoogleAlgoServant3 -
Is there any way to report a website that is not complying with webmaster guidelines to Google?
Like how we can "suggest an edit" in Google Business Listings, is there any way to report Google about the webmaster guidelines violation?
Local Website Optimization | | Alagurajeshwaran0 -
Differentiating Franchise Location Names to better optimize locations
Hello All, I am currently spear heading SEO for a national franchise. I am coming across locations in the same city and zip code. I'm definitely finding difficulties in naming the location in a way that will be specific to the franchise locations (locations are 1 mile away from each other). I am looking to apply geo specific location names for each center regardless of local city terms. (e.g. Apexnetwork of north madronna, Apexnetwork of south madronna) Also, building the website and location to read (apexnetwork.com/north-madronna….. apexnetwork.com/south-madronna) While encouraging the client to continue using the geo specific terms while writing blogs. Is this best practice? Any feedback would help.
Local Website Optimization | | Jeffvertus0 -
I have a client in Australia that is going to set up a website that is in Chinese to service their Asian customer base (Indonesia, Singapore, HK, China). What domain should they use?
They're website is hosted on a .com.au domain. Should they host their Chinese language pages under their current domain (.com.au) using a subdirectory (i.e. /asia) or should they use another separate domain that they own that is a regular .com? Or does it really not matter?
Local Website Optimization | | 100yards1 -
Should I open a new domain and website for a new location under one company?
Hi my name is Gina and I wanted to ask for some advice. I'm thinking opening a diff location and was thinking if its a good idea to open up a new domain and new website? And why that may be a good idea and why or a bad idea and why?
Local Website Optimization | | LittleDog0 -
Can PPC harm SEO results, even if it's off-domain?
Here's the scenario. We're doing SEO for a national franchise business. We have over 60 location pages on the same domain, that we control. Another agency is doing PPC for the same business, except they're leading people to un-indexable landing pages off domain. Apparently they're also using location extensions for the businesses that have been set up improperly, at least according to the Account Strategists at Google that we work with. We're having a real issue with these businesses ranking in the multi-point markets (where they have multiple locations in a city). See, the client wants all their location landing pages to rank organically for geolocated service queries in those cities (we'll say the query is "fridge repair"). We're trying to tell them that the PPC is having a negative effect on our SEO efforts, even though there shouldn't be any correlation between the two. I still think the PPC should be focused on their on-domain location landing pages (and so does our Google rep), because it shows consistency of brand, etc. I'm getting a lot of pushback from the client and the other agency, of course. They say it shouldn't matter. Has anyone here run into this? Any ammo to offer up to convince the client that having us work at "cross-purposes" is a bad idea? Thanks so much for any advice!
Local Website Optimization | | Treefrog_SEO0 -
Website Migration - remove unnecessary sub-folder?
Rebuilding a site that currently has good rankings. The original site was build in Joomla. I am doing the rebuild on WordPress. The old site is at the domain www.savannah-dentist.com, but clicking on any link generates a url with a subfolder; i.e. the website is at www.savannah-dentist.com, click on the logo and you will go to www.savannah-dentist.com/rosenthal/, the "meet the doctors" link goes to "www.savannah-dentist.com/rosenthal/meet-the-doctors" When I rebuild the site, do I have to retain that url structure? If I get rid of the folder and make everything simply like www.savannah-dentist.com/meet-the-doctors, will I be jeopardizing our rankings? Thanks! -Adam
Local Website Optimization | | aj6130 -
How Best to do implement a Branch Locator for a Website with invididual location category pages
Hi All, We have an ecommerce Website with multiple locations for our stores and we currently display separate location specific pages for the different categories and sub categories. This has helped us previously to rank well for local search in each of the areas we have a store but over the last few months since humingbird, our local rankings on some things have dip a little . We want to implement a branch locator of some description to improve the user experience. From looking at other websites with branch locators, they tend to a separate button/page with which you can search for a branch etc. However, they don't have location specific pages. My query is should I do it so if a user comes in on a specific category location page and follows it through to product page , then to have a tab on the product page displaying the local branch from which he can come in. My thinking here is that , is that it would help confirm my local citations and help improve local rankings. Or Should the local branch be displayed on the local category pages instead or as well ?. If a user comes in from the homepage or not on a specific location page, then the branch locator will allow them to search for a specific branch. Should I also put in a branch locator as a separate page or can It be in more places. I don't want to damage anything which may have an effect on rankings due to citations and NAP on the location specific pages. Any advice or good examples to look at would be greatly appreciated thanks Sarah.
Local Website Optimization | | SarahCollins1