How Will a Domain Change Effect My Ranking

How Will A Domain Change Effect My Ranking?

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By: Kalena Jordan
2007-01-25

Today's Ask Kalena Q&A question comes from Marco, and deals with redirection and the way search engines approach domain names.

Dear Kalena...

As always, I am very much enjoying your insightful newsletters.

I have a question for you: If I change domain names and keep the identical website on the new domain, how will search engine ranking be affected?

Thanks!
Marco

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Marco

If you are moving your site to an entirely new domain, you've got to be careful that your search rankings and link popularity aren't negatively affected. This can occur if you use the standard 301 "permanently moved" redirects on your old pages, or worse, use no redirects at all.

Technically, your new domain is treated as a brand new site, regardless of whether the content you use on it has been published on another domain and therefore, Google will subject it to the aging delay for new sites.

To avoid losing all those hard-earned rankings for the six to nine month Google limbo that is the aging delay, it's recommended that you use 302 "temporarily moved" redirects on your old domain pages until your new domain has aged the required time in Google. You can then safely switch the redirects to 301's. You can read more about this method in Scottie Claiborne's article: Switching to a New Domain Without Losing Your Google Rankings.

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About the Author:
Kalena Jordan was one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia and New Zealand and is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. Kalena was one of the founders of http://www.SearchEngineCollege.com and is currently Director of Studies and SEO tutor for the online training institution. Kalena is a member of SEO Consultants and has spoken at the popular Search Engine Strategies Conferences. She is also a moderator at the Search Engine Watch Forums and author of the popular Search Light newsletter.