Hold Off on SEO Changes After Domain Migration?
-
We migrated our domain on April 4th. Our domain authority has dropped from 22 to 8. Traffic is down from 90 visits a day to 10.
Search console has indexed about 120 out of 600 pages. I have been told it may take several months to recovers some element of domain authority.
My SEO consultant has planned on implementing the following changes immediately:
1. Change in URL structure
2. Build internal links (my site has very few).
3. Optimize URLs for specific keywords
4. Keyword optimization of URLs using Yoast.
5. Modify SchemaDo we risk confusing Google further by making these changes until are domain authority and traffic has recovered?
Is it safe to proceed with some "softer" changes such building internal links and keyword optimizing text whicl avoiding more disruptive changes such as re-writing URLs?
Are we better off focusing on off site ranking factors such as link building and local SEO until domain authority recovers? How about only adding new content to the site such as blog posts and listings?
To complicate matters the site is old and dated and we are working on a new UX design. So perhaps it would be better to launch the new UX at the exact same time as the onsite SEO optimization occurs. This could be less work and less disruptive. At the same time I would very much like to enjoy benefits of optimizing SEO now.
Any thoughts?????
Also, my domain migration has killed traffic. It is very concerning!! Is a 90% drop in traffic normal in the first ten days!?
Thanks everyone!!!
Alan -
I did a site migration from Http to HTTPS and saw no drop but google was big on making sure such transfers didn't create and problems so people did them. They wanted to encourage it so gave us a little boost. I saw no drop at all. But have heard of HTTP / HTTPS % HTTP2 having problems with traffic dropping. But usually this was an error that had been made somewhere.
OK so now I now that you are lettings that explains why so many pages. Things should have improved but lately I am finding my pages are not getting indexed as fast as they were a month ago. There really is a shake-up at google that is earth-moving at the moment. Sensors and chatter has been 10/10 for almost a month now with rumours of new things happening on 17th April.
I'm not one of these people who is glued to webmaster world but I'd bet it's things out of your control that have affected it or delays in indexing that will get picked up in a bit of time.
Try re-requesting all your crawls. I know what's obvious but it got mine finally indexed.
-
170 of the 420 pages were indexed after March 20th. 222 were indexed before March 11th. There was no drop in traffic until about April 7th, 3 days after the domain change.
I have checked and double checked with my developer and all pages were redirected correctly. We have gotten only a few redirect errors and they were fixed within the first few days of the migration.
Also, I would like to emphasize that no changes at all were made to the content or the structure.
The old site was www.nyc-officespace-leader.com
The new domain is https//:www.metro-manhattan.comSo you see we add SSL and migrated the domain as well.
My developer seems less concerned and believes it could take up to 90 days for domain authority to transfer from the old domain. I am more concerned. Certain MOZ posts claim that if implemented properly the drop in traffic should be minimal and very temporary.
Any thoughts?
-
The drop in traffic could have just been google reindexing the site following the March updates. Check your search console and see when your pages were indexed up to the site migration.
Have you redirected the pages correctly and has the site migration been done with the SEO checklist in mind?
Here's a guide from our friends at Moz and here's another from Search Engine Land. They are pretty comprehensive and I'm betting you might have missed something. Also are you looking at the old Moz DA score or the new one in the beta here.
But I would be concerned about the underlying issues of traffic here. Is the website doing it's job? And was it before the changes you made?
-
Hi Ed:
That is very interesting observation. I think you are absolutely correct regarding the number of visits vis a vis the number of pages.
But my situation is that the search volume has dropped to 10 visits a day from day after we have moved the site (no change in content or design) from the old domain to a new domain,
We are trying to figure out what has caused the drop in volume.
But we are also trying to figure out if we should start to improve the content structure before our domain authority recovers. It was previously 22, now it has dropped to 8. The domain migration was on April 4th. The question above pertained to timing for extensive SEO changes and then launch of a new design. All in context with the drop in traffic from the domain migration.
So what do you think advisable regarding SEO changes in light of problems relating to the domain switch and in light of the launch of the new design in a few months?
Thanks, Alan -
Hi Allen,
90 visits a day for 600 pages is only 0.15 visits a day for each page. That seems to me to be quite low volume. Have you considered that the pages may not have been indexed because google doesn't consider them to be high quality? Even 90 visits a day for 120 pages is averaging 0.75 (less than one) visit per day.
Perhaps consider the overall quality of the site and look at the volumes of the keywords that you are targeting and see where more volume could be found? Google will consider less than one user per day as a low quality site and that would be a huge concern of mine.
Perhaps consider aggregating pages together or combining them to send signals of comprehensiveness to google and that you're answering specific questions.
March has seen some huge google updates and this could also be causing havoc on your site as these updates are based on quality.
Have sites overtaken you in your rankings and are you on page one for your particular topics and keyword groups?
Send some more information and I'm sure we can help more.
All the best,
Ed.
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
-
Is it worth keeping a decades-old domain that's merely 301 redirecting to the main domain?
Hi fellow Moz SEOs, We have a bigger client who we just did an SEO Site Audit for, and it was discovered that they have several domain names that are simply 301 redirecting to their main domain name. One of their domains in particular is decades old, and the client is asking if there is any value in keeping it (and the others), or simply leaving them as-is. Considering the domain age, does anyone have any recommendations? Much appreciated, Zack Barton
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Zack
Barton Interactive
(833) 442.6853 // office
(408) 910.7750 // mobile
https://bartoninteractive.com0 -
Domain Change Of Address & Sale
Hi Moz community Let's say I have two domains www.domain1.com www.domain2.com domain1 is my main website. Domain 2 was a peripheral side project I was working on. I recently decided to shut it down. So I hooked up the proper 301s and filed a change of address request with Google Webmaster tools. I have had an offer for someone to purchase domain2 - I have absolutely no use for it and would like to sell it. I just want first to figure out that: I can do this without losing any ranking to my main site. I can disassociate this domain from myself and my Company completely. I don't want any of the work we put into it to transfer to the new owner. How can I do this? thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Shop-Sq0 -
Migrating From Parameter-Driven URL's to 'SEO Friendly URL's (Slugs)
Hi all, hope you're all good and having a wonderful Friday morning. At the moment we have over 20,000+ live products on our ecomms site, however, all of the products are using non-seo friendly URL's (/product?p=1738 etc) and we're looking at deploying SEO friendly url's such as (/product/this-is-product-one) etc. As you could imagine, making such a change on a big ecomms site will be a difficult task and we will have to take on A LOT of content changes, href-lang changes, affiliate link tests and a big 301 task. I'm trying to get some analysis together to pitch the Tech guys, but it's difficult, I do understand that this change has it's benefits for SEO, usability and CTR - but I need some more info. Keywords in the slugs - what is it's actual SEO weight? Has anyone here recently converted from using parameter based URL's to keyword-based slugs and seen results? Also, what are the best ways of deploying this? Add a canonical and 301? All comments greatly appreciated! Brett
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Brett-S0 -
Few question about SEO
HI guys, I have few questions and I always find good answer here. I tried many SEO companies some very expensive and well known some with medium prices and some from India. I’m not an SEO expert but I always get the same things from SEO companies. They're saying you have to stay with us for few months before you’ll see any results. I completely understand however I don’t see the result on the end.1. What exactly Do I need SEO company for, after I do on page optimisation if they don’t work on proper backlinks. Just letting you know I’m getting content from other people.2. Is there something else which is really important after your page is optimised than backlinks? Or we should fully focus on get backlinks from customers, guest post, sharing on social media etc. to increase our DA and PA?3. Any advice about some individual or company who is good in backlink services?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Lukas-ST
Thank youLukasThanks a lot.Lukas0 -
After Server Migration - Crawling Gets slow and Dynamic Pages wherein Content changes are not getting Updated
Hello, I have just performed doing server migration 2 days back All's well with traffic moved to new servers But somehow - it seems that w.r.t previous host that on submitting a new article - it was getting indexed in minutes. Now even after submitting page for indexing - its taking bit of time in coming to Search Engines and some pages wherein content is daily updated - despite submitting for indexing - changes are not getting reflected Site name is - http://www.mycarhelpline.com Have checked in robots, meta tags, url structure - all remains well intact. No unknown errors reports through Google webmaster Could someone advise - is it normal - due to name server and ip address change and expect to correct it automatically or am i missing something Kindly advise in . Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Modi0 -
Would changing the file name of an image (not the alt attribute) have an effect of on seo / ranking of that image and thus the site?
Would changing the file name of image, not the alt attribute nor the image itself (so it would be exactly the same but just a name change) have any effect on : a) A sites seo ranking b) the individual images seo ranking (although i guess if b) would be true it would have an effect on a) although potentially small.) This is the sort of change i would be thinking of making : ![Red ford truck](2554.jpg) changed to ![Red ford truck](6842.jpg)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Sam-P0 -
Changing Domain / Site Name - An SEO Nightmare?
My company will be changing its name and moving to a new domain in about a month. What can I do from an SEO perspective to get ready for the big move? Do I just need to 301 redirect all my URLs to their new corresponding pages? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Travis-W0 -
I am SEO amameur and have bee adding links slowly to site. I cannot seem to increase my domain authority from 20 however, Anyone any advice please????
I updated meta tags on website 2/3 months ago and saw a significant improvements in rankings for keyowrds, however since then I have been dropping back down. I am wondering if this is because of low domain authoriyty. it is currentyly 20. www.babskibay.com
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | babski0