When should you turn off redirects to your new domain?
-
Our website moved to a new domain a year ago, and we have our original domain to redirect to our new domain. We're working on contacting people who still link to our old domain to ask them to update, but 7% of our traffic is still coming as a redirect from our old domain.
My question is, when should we just shut the old domain down entirely and stop redirecting people to our new domain? Or should we just keep it up indefinitely? What would be the positive or negative impact on our new domain's SEO if we shut the old domain down?
Thanks!
-
We're working on it!
-
Are there any metrics you can use from the new site to help convince the higher-ups? Maybe your analytics can show that with the site redesign, people stay on the new site longer, that the bounce rate is lower, conversions are higher, or something you can use to show them that it would be better to have the pages on the new site format?
-
Very true!!
-
Yes and no. There are certain pages on the old domain that still exist, but very few, and we're trying to convince the higher-ups that we should move those pages into our new site. The majority of the old website, though, 301 redirects to our new domain.
-
So the old domain with the old content is still displayed, you're not just sending users to the appropriate page of the new domain with a 301?
-
Our old domain was a sprawling behemoth of a website (we completely redid our website when we changed domains), which is a big part of the reason why we're itching to take it down - not so much the cost issue. But you make a good point, thanks!
-
Keep the domain up there and redirected indefinitely, it's not hurting anything and can only help. And don't let the registration lapse, you don't want a competitor to pick up that old domain and do something with it.
-
Or you could just skip 2 latte's at Starbucks, then you don't have to sweat the 9 bucks to maintain it.
-
As the other responses have said, although it will cost you a yearly fee to keep the website up, (minimal), it is in your interest to keep it up to keep that 7% referring traffic. Check out Open Site Explorer to help you identify the websites that have not added your new link, and contact the webmasters to ask them to change it.
Depending on your target audience, if you turn off the redirects, there is a high chance they will be able to find you if they are looking for you. I guess it would depend on the sites content, and whether the traffic was brand related or search driven.
Aaron
-
Your best bet would be to keep it up. That way any link juice coming from websites linking to your old domain will still carry through to your new domain by using the redirect. Also, if you are still receiving visitors to your old domain, it would be a good idea to continue to keep the redirect alive, just to continue receiving those visits and all potential traffic that would come from the old domain.
I would say, if you stop seeing very much, if any, traffic coming from the redirect, you could do without it. However, if it's a concern over spending the money to renew the old domain, depending on how much it costs, it may or may not be worth it to you.
-
NEVER!
The only downside is the $9.95 you pay to keep the registration. The downside to turning it off are many. You lose the PR that is is passing, even if there is no traffic coming from that old domain it still passes PR! Keep it forever!
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
-
My homepage redirects to itself?
Hi there - I'm not a SEO so help would be appreciated! Moz is telling me we have a redirect loop but the URLs are the same. https://www.example.com/ to https://www.example.com/ Why is my homepage creating a redirect loop to itself? We use Wordpress and I do not have any redirects listed for our homepage. Could this have something to do with switching to https in April? Thanks, Katherine
Technical SEO | | kmmartin0 -
Redirecting a blog
We've acquired another company and want to redirect their soon-to-be-obsolete website to ours. It includes a blog with many blog posts. Should we: only 301 redirect the top level blog URL
Technical SEO | | Caro-O
try redirect individual blogs to blogs of a similar topic on our site (least practical I'm sure)
redirect all their individual posts to our main blog URL Thanks, Caro1 -
If a permanent redirect is supposed to transfer SEO from the old page to the new page, why has my domain authority been impacted?
For example, we redirected our old domain to a new one (leaving no duplicate content on the old domain) and saw a 40% decrease in domain authority. Isn't a permanent redirect supposed to transfer link authority to the place it is redirecting to? Did I do something wrong?
Technical SEO | | BlueLinkERP0 -
Redirecting domain to the main domain (hosting cost?)
Hello Everyone, I have the following situation. There is main domain and a secondary domain that is related to the page on the main domain. I want to integrate the content of the secondary domain into the page on the main domain and redirect the secondary domain via 301 to that specific page. As i understand I can do it via .htaccess using rewrite mechanism. http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/redirection But the question is does it mean I have to keep paying for the hosting for the secondary domain? Because htaccess has to be located on the web server so I would need a hosting plan for it? Is that true? Is there any way around it? P.S. to avoid any confusion - I am talking about hosting plan - not domain registration fees
Technical SEO | | SirMax0 -
Redirects
I have a question about 404ed domains and old domains. #1 A domain has many links to it, but has been 404ed for 4 months. Should I redirect to a page I own and is almost exactly the same content. Will the fact that it was once 404ed be an issue? #2 I have an old domain that has many links but has been stagnant for a long time. Are these links still valuable and I should I redirect them to an important page on a different site? Does penguin influence your advice?
Technical SEO | | tylerfraser0 -
Does redirect of domain alias help rankings?
Yes... It iz I again ;o) Here's one for you savy techies out there: So, I've got a primary domain which is live, optimized and running smooooth. And then I've got a couple of misspelled domains as well (17 to be exact). Will it have an effect if I 301 those misspelled domains? What's Best Practice for several domain aliases? Example.
Technical SEO | | nosuchagency
Primary domain: bryghusprojektet.dk
Alias domain 1: bryghusprojekt.dk (301 redirects to primary domain)
Alias domain 2: bryghus-projekt.dk (Hosting company infopage)
Alias domain 3: bryghus-projekter.dk (Not activated) Regards.1 -
301 Redirect with an Exact Domain name Match
My Client had a site that ranked for a pretty competitive two word phrase, but for a variety of reasons had to transfer the site to a different domain name (with none of the previous keywords). We've 301'd everything just fine to the new site, but our traffic for that two word phrase, as well as related long tail traffic, is beginning to drop. Could the drop be related to something that we didn't do well in the transfer? Or is it due to the new domain name now not being an exact match? Sitenote question: Our Google Analytics is still set up for the former domain name and shows data just fine. Is there any reason to switch GA to the new domain? What are the pros/cons? Much thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | TrevorMcKendrick0