Hello, I need your help... My current domain name is www.net-games.biz , which is a BAD domain name. I bought this domain when i was a beginner and now the site is very big. The site is rank well for some important games related keywords at GOOGLE. In order to make it bigger i think that i must change the domain name. so i bought a nice premium .COM domain. Please let me know what you think about my situation, shell i change the domain name or not. if i will change it, what will be the consequences ? will i lose my ranks...? how to do it in the best way (for SEO) mostly for GOOGLE. what should i do with all the incoming links, should i ask the other webmasters to change the url to the new one...? Please help me, this move is so scary...
It is always a pain to do a transition like you want to do! If you completely change the URL, you will be starting from scratch! If it was me in your cituation I would just re-direct the domain so that you can keep all of the hard work that you have done, especially if you are in decent positions and have alot of links for the .biz domain!! My opinion anyways!!
wow so many back links 3 years old + listed in yahoo directory? i wouldn't change it at all, you can create another website in addition and develop it.
tha idea is to redirect the old domain to the new one. i think that 301 redirect is the best, isn't it?
Yes, 301 redirects are the best and only for what you want to do. However, you'll be starting from scratch, and it'll take in the ballpark of 6 months for Google to sort out before you start seeing the work you've done for your current domain start helping the new one.
The anwser is not. Unless you dont care about rankings or traffic. Choosing a domain name is so important because you are married to it, and once you've invested a lot of time/money/effort you cant walk away from it becuase you'll be starting all over.
Here is what i would consider: 1. Duplicate your site and install it on your new name, change as much text as you can, then in about a year revisit and see if you want to 301 to your new site 2. 301 your new name to your to your old name and advertise that you are changing names, and move your entire site in about 9 months i would lean towards 1. not knowing how much work is involved with maintaining 2 game sites. I don't think you will get much of a duplicate content penalty if you change enough, and if you do it will be on the new site anyway. The advantage of this is you are able to maintain your current one that has grown organically and has regulars and deep links to games, which is sometimes hard with a BS name, but you have already broken that barrier. Then your new site will attract a new audience and may grow faster because of it's name and you will probably gain more than if you were able to magically just change names and keep your rankings.
Does anyone here had some experience with 301 redirecting of well ranked site. I think that the big question is: how much time will it take to get things (ranking) back to normal. if someone had done it befor pls tell me how did it worked for you. Thanks for your help
Don't change it. As the others said, you'll be starting over from scratch. You've got a good thing here anyway, why would you want to change it?
I'd recommend trying to contact Google. They may be able to help you so that the transition is as smooth as possible.
I have not done it with my own site....but I have helped someone else do it. It is a lot of work and risk..... Ogrish.com....grew huge, and then became liveleak.com (301'd)..... it is now permanently redirected there. it worked, but it is very risky.... if I was you I certainly wouldnt just 'swap' overnight.....you will get booted from the Serps for at least 6 months until they figure out what has happened and will lose a LOT of traffic.... What you could do if you HAVE to fix your domain (I say leave it myself....if it aint broke, dont fix it!) Start over with the new site, use your old sites PR and traffic to get it well up in the serps (links, articles etc) and then move to 301 your old domain to the new one after notifying your customers and link partners that the sites are now 'merging'....and once the 'new' domain has a decent PR and backlinks. You would have to be careful with duplicate content, and it would increase your workload, but they dont have to be totally different, jsut some different content. I know of a 'group' of about 20 top ranked sites for competitive uk job related keywords that are based on the same template exactly!! So every site has the same content, except the names and page descriptions are changed...and on page content is 'tweaked' but no more than tweaked. One of them (their leading site) is my main competitor and I have repeatedly tried to get them done for duplicate content.....Googles customer service sucks