How to Keep Google Rankings When Switching Domains
Do you need to switch to a new domain name because of branding or a change in corporate name? This can be extra tough when your old website has top rankings and is an older established domain name. There is a recommended way to do this and Google even provides instructions on how to do it with their Best Practices When Moving Your Site.
- Measure: Start by documenting your websites current rankings. This will give you a baseline to measure any change in rankings before and after the change. If something goes wrong, you will have "evidence" of the rankings loss. Ideally you will accumulate three months of rankings data for your specific keyword phrases.
- Notify: Go onto Google Webmaster Central Forum and publicly state your intention of moving your website from your old domain to your new one. State the reason for the move. This helps Google know the new domain is legitimate and gives you a basis to complain if things go wrong.
- Test: Copy your site or part of your site over to your new domain and temporarily block indexing with a robots.txt file on every page. This prevents the new site being detected as duplicate content. Apply a 301 redirect to permanently redirect your "test pages" from the old site to the new site. Now remove the robots.txt file on these test pages so indexing can happen. Use a page-to-page redirect method instead of a blanket redirect. Update all links on both sites to be correct.
- Verify: Pages from the new site are appearing in Google's search results. Once you are certain the move is working correctly, you are ready to move the rest of the site.
- Move: Finish the move of the rest of the website. Test all links to make sure they all are pointing to the new website. Use a broken link checker like Xenu for this. Fix all broken links.
- Webmaster Tools: Add your new site to your webmaster tools account. Verify ownership and submit a sitemap.
- Linking: Launch an online marketing blitz with press releases or social media linking for your new website. Contact webmasters that are linking to your old site and request link updates. The goal is to build the link authority of the new website.
- Maintain: Maintain control of your old site for at least 6 months. Regularly review both sites for crawl errors and any 404 errors. Fix these immediately as they are found.
- Measure: Monitor search rankings and report loss of rankings and request assistance on Google Webmaster Central Forum. If your site rankings dip and do not rebound in two weeks, post an update to your original thread.
- Redesign: Ideally you will postpone any redesign initiatives and new content until the rankings for the moved website rebounds and stabilizes. It is best not to introduce too many changes at one time.
Website Marketing For Real Results
Call us for a free quote!
We have a full scale team to get businesses exactly where they need to be for internet marketing success. From building custom designed websites that engage your audience and turn visitors into new leads and clients, to traffic strategies that draw in new visitors to your website. Our internet marketing approach is to provide a well rounded solution, customized to your needs as a business. Contact Us today to see how we can help your business succeed online!
800.393.7740
Our Philosophy/Mission
Every business is unique, and our solutions are designed to be customized to meet your needs and produce results that will work for you today and in the future. We take the time to understand your goals and create solutions that will grow your business.