Changing Website Name without Affecting SEO

Gerbud on 23/11/2015 - 20:25

Hey,

So I have a website and own both the .com and .com.au domains. Website has been live for over 2 years and I have invested time and money into SEO for it. As my business has changed a bit in terms of clientele it attracts, I want to change the business name but keep everything else the exact same.

I own the .com.au for the name I want to change it to but not the .com

I am trying to figure out the best way to go about this? Was looking at 301 redirects but not sure if doing all this will affect rankings etc?

Anyone have any similar experience in doing something like this?

Thanks

Internet

Comments

  • adzzz on 23/11/2015 - 20:56
    +1

    301's will diminish your "link juice" by about 15% in the short term. How many pages do you plan on doing 301's for? There is also a crawler penalty for 301's that follow more than 2-3 hops so keep that in mind when you make changes.

    • Gerbud on 24/11/2015 - 01:41

      I think it will be 6 pages. Website is quite basic in nature.

  • mskeggs on 23/11/2015 - 21:42
    +1

    Can you direct your efforts to the new business page while leaving the old pages up, but putting a notice that you are now trading as the new name with a link?
    I guess I am looking at it from the idea if you have changed direction the new pages will capture the new direction better, but the SEO old pages will still keep bringing in traffic for the old niche as well.
    The end result of having two sets of pages might be more useful than trying to convert the old pages to a new segment.

  • scotty on 23/11/2015 - 21:52
    +2

    SEO is overrated :) However,

    • Keep the old domain up for as long as you can, and then 301 redirect all pages to your new domain.
    • Google Webmaster has a domain transfer function to tell Google that you have moved the website to a new domain. Use that.

    We have changed the domain for our New Zealand website earlier this year. No notable loss of organic traffic.

    • Gerbud on 24/11/2015 - 01:46

      Thanks Scotty! :)

      I can definitely keep the old domain up and setup the redirects but the new domain will have nearly the exact same content, images etc. in it apart from logo and business name.

      Do you think that would be an issue?

      Ps. Any other recommendations and promoting a website online outside of SEO?!

  • iancharley on 19/06/2017 - 18:40

    if you change your domain name you should also change the URL path of each pages on your website to minimize the 404 pages or page not found. Also, you should confirm the new URL to your webmaster tool or analytics tool. This is the process I've done when I upgrade the site that I am working on: please look at https://aussieswitchboards.com.au for your reference.

  • katekate1 on 23/06/2017 - 22:22

    old domain should have redirect 301 link to it to the new domain. but make sure URL path of each pages on your website to minimize the 404 pages or page not found.

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