Moving a .com to a shorter .ninja?

I am considering moving my blog from markustenghamn.com to markus.ninja. Do you guys think this is a good move SEO wise? Will the domain extension affect rankings?

Any tips on how to keep the current rankings that differ from the usual tips when moving between domains on the same domain extension?

 

IMO I would think there's not really much you can do, if rankings differ from .com to .ninja then that's at the SE level and not much you can do to keep rankings that relate to that metric specifically. All you could do is offset it with a bit of additional optimization on your site to even it a bit. That's assuming there's much weight placed on the actual extension these days, I'm not sure.

 

Personally I don't think it's a good move. Domain extension has little affect in SEO. I've seen a lot of my .com extensions performing well though rather than others.

 

I also thing it is not a good move. Because .com always performs well than other extensions. Unless you have a local business, you should use .com.

 

If your site was focused on martial arts, I might think it could help. Since it isn't, I think it's a bad idea. People are familiar with .com and won't be able to keep track of all the new domains, it will confuse and not help.

 

by all means, take the shorter domain, and divert it to the .com, (wont cause any harm) and it does sound kinda cool being able to tell people its markus.nija

but for the most part, I would not move, or divert the existing .com to the .nija.
Just my 2cents.

 

Yea, I figured .ninja was kind of clever since you have both job titles and companies like "coding ninja". But thanks for all of the great feedback, I think I will at least put this on hold for a while to see if the domain extension gets any good tracktion from others.

 

In terms of keeping your link juice and general SEO stats you are pretty much OK. You simply need to redirect everything with a 301 redirect, keep the same link structure and ultimately resubmit your website in Google. This way you shouldn't expect significant drops.

Such a case requires a more in-depth though about your audience tho - How large us your visitor base at the moment? In what age group? How can you let them know of the new name and make them remember it? The last question especially is very tricky when it comes to the new gTLDs (like .ninja). People are pretty much used to .com websites and many consider it as the only existing domain extension in the world (just like they do with Internet Explorer, bleh). So you would have to put a lot of effort to make people remember the new name, even though its shorter and catchier. Its just like changing the brand name of your product - it might be for the best, you just have to let the others understand that. Of course, you can always park your current domain to the new one, so it redirects and opens the page on the new domain, but for the most part its up to you to make the new name as popular as the old one

 

who said that .com do better than others. There is no rule regards to which extension you use. SEO is determine by the contents and the links and social media etc not the extension.

 

I sure wouldn't either, these new TLDs really screw with the way people perceive domains and people aren't that comfortable with them yet. They will be with time but no reason to be coding.ninja and confuse people with the domain. Not to mention the SEO effects.