Complete website redesign: original domain vs subdomain vs new domain ?
-
Hello dear community fellas!
The story goes like this: my company has a good ol' website launched back in 2008 and since then nothing much was updated there. Our rank dropped significantly because, well, barely any SEO was done for it.Me and my team decided to redesign the whole thing: content, structure, visuals, links, everything but this time really making it right. However, with our oldie we managed to get a nice user base, so we still want to get all the traffic juice out of it.
Now the questions is where do you think is the best place to publish our new website:
- Our original domain www.companyname.com?
- Create a subdomain new.companyname.com?
- Totally new domain www.namecompany.com?
Cheers!
-
Thank you Tom for your comprehensive answer.
Indeed, we are experiencing some drops with backlinks comparing to the beginning of the year but I don't think it's the matter of penalty. The main source of incoming traffic is our publications, PRs, a few discussions and since we have a pause with publications that can be a reason for a drop.
Back to the matter: yes, we are updating company and product branding, keeping our value proposition as before, just making a stronger statement. And yes, I'd say I'm more inclined to the idea of keeping the domain as it is and publishing the new website there (of course with 301 redirect for old URLs) but many industry colleges suggested to create the subdomain for the "backup" purposes "in case if God knows what happens you will still have your old website structure".
Thanks again for your point of view, will definitely consider it.
-
Hi Kate
From an SEO perspective - is there anything "wrong" with your current domain, that you can see? EG - do you have a bad backlink profile, do you think you're affected by a Google penalty? If the answer to any of these is "yes", you might want to consider a new domain.
As a whole, I don't see any benefit with a subdomain solution.
But really, that's where I think the SEO considerations stop. Look at it more from a business or branding point of view. If this is a significant relaunch and rebrand, do you think that a new website would coincide with the relaunch and give it extra emphasis? Is it a significant change of direction and do you think updating your current website would confuse or isolate your user base (as you're now something completely different)? If yes, I'd look at a new domain.
But if you're just updating the look and feel of your site, or even if you're changing your marketing message, look and approach, but in essence you're the same company with the same values and user base, then I would stay on your current domain. You'd get the benefit of your currently existing links yes, but really you'll be keeping continuity and you won't be interrupting your current users' journeys at all.
So there is a small SEO consideration here, but beyond that this is more of a business decision. If you're completely changing the way you're doing business, go with a new domain. If you're updating the brand and its appearance, but keeping the core values, then stay as you are.
Hope this 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
-
Multiple links from same domain (different pages) considered in credibility of backlinks?
Hi, Let's say there are multiple backlinks from different pages of same domain to different pages of other domain like below: Website A: Page 1 -----------> Website B: Page 1 Website A: Page 2 -----------> Website B: Page 2 Do the pages of Website B pages will get backlinks authority equally or they don't get much backlinks impact as they have multiple backlinks from same domain? There were old school stories that Google ignores second link from same domain.....etc... So, please suggest on this. Thank you. Note: The question is NOT about content relevancy or domain authority score of the backlinks.
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz1 -
What are the technical details (touchpoints) of a website gathered by Google?
Hi all, Google crawls all the webpages and gathers content to index and ranking. Beside this general info, what are the all other possible technical details Google will be gathered about a website to rank or penalise or optimise the website in SERP? Like IP address, DNS server, etc.......Please share your knowledge and ideas on this. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Primary keyword in every page title of website
Hi all, We can see many website page titles are filled with "brand name & primary keyword" at suffix. Just wondering how much this gonna help. Or can we remove "primary keyword" from other non-relevant pages and limit the same to important pages to rank well? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Numbers vs #'s For Blog Titles
For your blog post titles, is it "better" to use numbers or write them out? For example, 3 Things I love About People Answering My Constant Questions or Three Things I Love About People Answering My Constant Questions? I could see this being like the attorney/lawyer, ecommerce/e-commerce and therefore not a big deal. But, I also thought you should avoid using #'s in your url's. Any thoughts, Ruben
Algorithm Updates | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Is Moz Domain Authority still relvant when it comes to Google ranking?
My understanding of Moz DA is that it is predominantly based on external links. Since Penguin I am noticing more and more websites ranking high in Google with a "low" number of links and certainly a low DA but quality and relevancy of content and also of offering. I understand that there was always more to ranking than DA but is it anymore even relevant to how a site will rank in Google?
Algorithm Updates | | halloranc0 -
What's the current situation for exact match ecommerce domains
I'm looking for some current opinions on exact-match domains when it comes to ecommerce sites. I currently own an "OK" brandable domain in a specific ecommerce niche. The opportunity has now come along to own the exact match domain for this category. For example catfood.com Is it more advisable to focus on brandables these days? I know Google doesn't give weight to exact match anymore but is there still a correlation not causation factor to consider? IE: the links back would be more targeted possibly?
Algorithm Updates | | NoClueSEO0 -
Links from high Domain authority sites
I have a relatively uncompetitive niche ranking around number 6 for my keywords. Would getting a few links from some Moz DA 80-90 and DA 90-100 sites help my rankings a lot? Some of the pages linking to me from these sites might be deep in the site pretty far away from the home page with pagerank of "unranked" or a grayed out bar and these pages linking to me might not have many links at all other than from the internal links of the site itself and would have a Moz PA of 10 or 20. Would these pass much pagerank or authority to my site or would they not be worth going after? These links to my site would be in context on a blog. Thanks mozzers!
Algorithm Updates | | Ron100 -
Is purchasing domain names still relevant?
Our MD is requesting that we continue to renew a long list of domains that we purchased many years ago. Is this practice still relevant or is there more to be gained from SEO and keyword strategy on our own site? All of the domains are redirected to our main site, but the main reason for purchasing was to stop others using them. Can someone please advise? Don't want to be spending money on this if it is of no benefit to us at all.
Algorithm Updates | | DonaldRussell0