Change domains and start over?
-
We have a fairly new client who has taken part in many questionable SEO technique over the past few years (mainly buying links and directory web pages). In an effort to fix this they hired three separate SEO’s – we are the fourth. Over the past 3 months we have spent lots of time following best practice techniques to clean up and improve their rankings (including link removal requests but not yet disavow), and after some initially positive results, things are looking down again.
Given Google’s apparent rolling algorithm updates and the mess we have found, we are wondering if the best option is to change domains and start over (downside is that they are in a highly competitive industry)? My other question pertains to a domain change and if we were to change from a plural to a singular, would that be enough for Google? (e.g from www.domains.com to www.domain.com). The idea is that we start the link building process again – but keep their brand intact.
Really appreciate any feedback.
-
Thanks for the lengthy response Jarno - your advise is much appreciated. I think we will give the slow disavow approach a go first, esp given the risks associated with changing domains. A steady approach seems to be safest at this point. Thanks again for your input. Regards, Prue
-
Thanks so much for you feedback. Unfortunately traffic and leads from organic search are reflecting rankings - heading south!! I think we will invest a little more time - appreciate the heads up re: IP should we change domains. That is very valuable advice. Kind regards, prue
-
Hi there,
read your question with great interest. This kinda thing is what I face during some projects to. The first problem is that you are the fourth company working on their site. Every SEO has his/hers own methodology. In other words, things you might not consider to do, might be considered or done by someone else. Then again, the basics should all be the same.
The fact they've had some bad SEO done in the past can hurt a site. I would disavow those links, wait for maybe a month or 2 and check regularly if the links have been dropped. And then look at what the rankings will do. But don't focus on rankings alone. For instance, what is the bounce rate at this point? If the incoming traffic is unrelated to the subject through directory links or bad links you might see a high bounce ratio or low views per visitor. That is also I factor I would look at after disavowing some links. In stead of disavowing everything at once (which you could do) maybe it's wiser to disavow 25% first, then another 25%, another 25% and then the last 25% of links. And keep measuring the effect.
As for using singular or plural domain names is always tricky. It also kinda depends on the language your focussing on. In the Netherlands we have some terms that the plural is completely something else as the singular version. Sometimes it's just a "s" on the end other times the entire word becomes something different.
I would work a bit more on the old domain, making sure the on page SEO is completely up to date and correct, making sure you disavow some/all of the links, creating new unique content, acquire new links through your new content and keep a focus on the future. That way you might also get this old domain to work. Besides the age of the domain could also be a factor (several tools take this into account).
If you do switch to another domain, I agree with Ray. Make sure you also host it on another IP adres and make sure you don't get any reference from the old to the new domain because then the bad link juice might just flow through to the new domain.
Hope my point of view helps
Regards
Jarno
-
I think what you need to consider is the quality and amount of traffic the current domain is receiving. If the rankings are shot and the site isn't receiving quality leads, then starting a new domain may be the best idea.
Changing from a singular to a plural should be enough - however, I would also want to change hosting providers to ensure no related IPs are associated with the domain as well.
Are you certain that your new efforts are not gaining traction?
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
-
Massive Spam attack against my domain - automate disvow of tld?
We've been getting hundreds of new links from unique domains every day - all the domains follow a pattern like this: www.someword-1f4163e1.space/wiki/Someterm Hundreds... every day. What techniques exist to deal with a prolonged negative seo attack of this type. By the time we can detect and disvow, the damage is done.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | sonar0 -
Does Duplicate Content Actually "Penalize" a Domain?
Hi all, Some co-workers and myself were in a conversation this afternoon regarding if duplicate content actually causes a penalty on your domain. Reference: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359?hl=en http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-duplicate-content-wont-hurt-you-unless-it-is-spammy-167459 Both sources from Google do not say "duplicate content causes a penalty." However, they do allude to spammy content negatively affecting a website. Why it came up: We originally were talking about syndicated content (same content across multiple domains; ex: "5 explanations of bad breath") for the purpose of social media sharing. Imagine if dentists across the nation had access to this piece of content (5 explanations of bad breath) simply for engagement with their audience. They would use this to post on social media & to talk about in the office. But they would not want to rank for that piece of duplicated content. This type of duplicated content would be valuable to dentists in different cities that need engagement with their audience or simply need the content. This is all hypothetical but serious at the same time. I would love some feedback & sourced information / case studies. Is duplicated content actually penalized or will that piece of content just not rank? (feel free to reference that example article as a real world example). **When I say penalized, I mean "the domain is given a negative penalty for showing up in SERPS" - therefore, the website would not rank for "dentists in san francisco, ca". That is my definition of penalty (feel free to correct if you disagree). Thanks all & look forward to a fun, resourceful conversation on duplicate content for the other purposes outside of SEO. Cole
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | ColeLusby0 -
How will Google deal with the crosslinks for my multiple domain site
Hi, I can't find any good answer to this question so I thought, why not ask Moz.com ;-)! I have a site, let's call it webshop.xx For a few languages/markets, Deutsch, Dutch & Belgian, English, French. I use a different TLD with a different IP for each of these languages, so I'll end up with: webshop.de, webshop.nl, webshop.be, webshop.co.uk, webshop.com & webshop.fr They all link to eachother and every subpage that is translated from the other site gets a link as well from the other languages, so: webshop.com/stuff links to webshop.de/stuff My main website, webshop.com gets links from every other of these domain which Open Site Explorer as well as Majestic SEO sees as an external link. (this is happening) My question. How will Google deal in the long-run with the crosslinks coming from these domains? some guesses I made: I get full external links juice (content is translated so unique?) I get a bit of the juice of an external link They are actually seen as internal links I'll get a penalty Thanks in advance guys!!!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | pimarketing0 -
Competitor owns two domains which are essentially duplicates. Is this allowed?
Hello everyone,One of my competitors has two E-commerce sites that are almost exactly the same. The company re-branded a few years ago (changed the company name, changed the domain name) but kept the first domain live which is still fairly successful. Their re-branded website is a Top 1000 retailer.The thing is, both websites are essentially the EXACT SAME. They have the same products (with the same item #'s), the same pricing, the same copy and product descriptions, the same contact info, same layout, etc. The internal search bar on the first domain even redirects to their current site! The only real difference are the brand names. Currently, both sites are ranking very well for some very competitive keywords. For the past two years, I kept waiting for Google to penalize one (or both) of them for duplication. But for some reason Google seems to have not noticed. **Is there any way to "show google" site duplication they might be missing?**Thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | bpharris90141 -
Site architecture change - +30,000 404's in GWT
So recently we decided to change the URL structure of our online e-commerce catalogue - to make it easier to maintain in the future. But since the change, we have (partially expected) +30K 404's in GWT - when we did the change, I was doing 301 redirects from our Apache server logs but it's just escalated. Should I be concerned of "plugging" these 404's, by either removing them via URL removal tool or carry on doing 301 redirections? It's quite labour intensive - no incoming links to most of these URL's, so is there any point? Thanks, Ben
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | bjs20100 -
Redirect n domain to one
What happen when I redirect301 10 domain to one? I have 10 domain with ave Page Authority=45 and Domain Authority 60 and want to increase my new domain by redirect them. is it right or wrong?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | vahidafshari450 -
Unique businesses - unique domain names?
A client of mine owns a studio space where he teaches yoga and martial arts. It's a new business and we're deciding how to create the website(s) and which domain(s) to buy. The idea right now is to have 3 websites for each side of the business, and I'm looking for validation of this idea. I haven't been able to find an answer in the Q&A forum that quite applies to our situation. Website 1: for the studio itself. The audience is other yoga teachers, martial arts teachers, or personal trainers. He will rent out the studio space to them and they bring in their own clients. Content and keywords will relate to this. Website 2: yoga classes. The audience is members of the public who want to take yoga classes. Content and keywords will relate to this. Website 3: martial arts. The audience is members of the public who want to take martial arts classes. Content and keywords will relate to this. We will make certain there's no duplicate content on the sites, but it makes sense for them to link to each other because they're similar in nature (personal health and fitness at the studio), and the latter 2 services are offered at the studio, of course. Question 1: (a) is it a good idea to get a separate domain for each site? for example: www.city-studio.com, www.unique-name-yoga.com, www.unique-name-martial-arts.com (b) Or would it be better to keep it all under city-studio.com and use subdomains like yoga.city-studio.com and martial-arts.city-studio.com? In either case, the keywords "yoga" and "martial arts" would be in the domain name, which has benefit. Does that still apply for subdomains? (c) Or would these services even be considered similar enough that I just use www.city-studio.com/yoga.php and www.city-studio.com/martial-arts..php There will of course be several pages on yoga and several on martial arts. Question 2: if registering multiple domains, they will interlink as much as possible. (a) what do we consider when buying the domains? (b) use a different address for WHOIS of each domain? (c) can technical contact be the same address (mine, the consultant)? (d) use a different credit card for each? (e) ok if the name on the credit card is the same? (f) can we register them all the same day? (h) same domain registrar? (i) same host? we don't want to appear black hat by having multiple sites, but I think it's very legitimate to have the business split into 3 sites like this just because they're separate sides of the business with different audiences, content, keywords. Question 3: when the domains come up for renewal in 1 year (or more), would it be safe to switch them all over to one credit card then, for convenience to the owner? Question 4: is there anything important I haven't mentioned here? I appreciate any input and discussion.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Kenoshi0 -
Single Domain With Different Pages Deep Linking To Different Pages On External Domain
I've been partaking in an extensive trial study and will be releasing the results soon, however I do have quite a strong indication to the answer to this question but would like to see what everyone else thinks first, to see where the common industry mindset is at. Let's say SiteA.com/page1.html is PR5 and links out to SiteB.com/page1.html This of course would count as a valuable backlink. Now, what would happen if SiteA.com/page2.html, which is also PR5, links out to SiteB.com/page2.html ? The link from SiteA is coming from a different page, and is also pointing to a different deeplink on SiteB, however it will contain the same IP address. What would the benefit be for having multiple deeplinks in this way (as outlined above, please read it carefully before responding) as opposed to having just a single deeplink from the domain? If a benefit does exist, then does the benefit start to become trivial? This has nothing to do with sitewide links. Serious answers only please.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | stevenheron1