How long before I can use a redirected domain without taking back link juice?
-
We recently moved our website to a new domain that better matched our brand. I want to use the old domain at some point for another aspect of our business.
How long after we do the domain redirect will it be safe to use the old domain again--without affecting the seo of the new domain?
Thanks!
Harriet
-
Thank you, Jane. You rephrased my question much better.
You're correct that the old site wasn't being penalized (rebranding was the reason we moved it.)
I have plenty of time to improve the new site before I need to use the old domain.
Thanks again,
Harriet -
This was my impression as well @zharriet. If you haven't yet gotten an answer, letting us further understand the problem will help us to give you a good answer.
-
I didn't get the impression from this question that the old site / domain was penalised. Correct me if I'm wrong, zharriet, but I got the impression that what you're saying is that you changing domains, redirected www.oldsite.com to www.newsite.com, but that at some point in the future, you want to use **www.oldsite.com **at some point in the future for another part of the business. As such, you want to know when you can "turn off" the redirect without harming the new rankings of www.newsite.com, using www.oldsite.comfor new content.
The answer to this is really hard to give: some sites don't seem to benefit much from having old domains pointed at them. Others benefit for a period before that benefit seems to disappear (meaning that you will have needed to build a good number of news links to the new domain).
It is impossible to say what the effect of removing a 301 redirect at some point in the future will be, but the safest way you can ensure that this doesn't harm the new site is by building a robust platform of good on and off site SEO for that new site so that it can withstand having any benefit of the old site's 301 taken away.
-
There really is no expiration date on the link equity that goes through a redirect. If you're worried about penalized links then they will always be present and if you redirect one site to the other then you'll be redirecting all of those links as well.
BeanstalkSEO's solution probably would work. If you want to be able to redirect the site without having a splash page you can also do it by redirecting through an intermediary page that is blocked by robots.txt.
-
Is there a reason that you aren't doing a redirect right away?
-
I assume the old domain has a penalty and thus the concern with the redirection (not judging, just noting the premise of the answer). While in these events I am hesitate to connect the dots at all, going back to my affiliate marketing days (when I had a much more cowboyish approach to SEO) I would have done the following:
1 - Put up a one page splash page on the old site.
2 - Disallow the site in the robots.txt file
3 - Put the noindex,nofollow on the splash page
4 - Use a meta refresh on the splash page directed to the new site
5 - if it was a link issue add a disavow file on both domains for the links to the old domainThe splash page should read something like, "This site has been moved to a new domain. If you are not redirected in x seconds (x being however long you've selected for the refresh) please click here." (where "click here is a nofollowed link to your new domain.
This all said, anytime you link two domains there is always the chance the Google will connect the dots now or in the future so there is an element of risk. You have clearly shown that you don't want weight passing so that's a perk but it all depends on risk tolerance.
I'll be interested to hear any additional thoughts or techniques. I haven't done anything like this in many many years.
Good luck !!!
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Negative SEO & How long does it take for Google to disavow
Following on from a previous problem of this 2021 Waec Runz page completely dropping from index, we have discovered that 150+ spam, porn domains have been directed at our pages (sometime in the last 3-4 months, don't have an exact date). Does anyone have exerpeince on how long it may take Google to take noticed of a new disavow list? Any estimates would be very helpful in determining our next course of action.
Technical SEO | | sathoiue80 -
How not to lose internal link juice?
Hi, I just added some photography content to my site to showcase my skills, specifically 360 virtual tours. I first tried to have those on regular pages and have the 360s in responsive iframes, but it caused usability problems. So I've chosen instead to have a master page with thumbnails that lead to individuals 360's. https://gregmoinephotography.com/360-virtual-tours-hdr-vr-ready/ Links look like that: http://gregmoinephotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/360/maverick-helicopters/ Each pano takes over the whole page. My concern is losing internal link juice as each pano page doesn't link anywhere. Also, external link juice when people start linking to each 360. What should I do to fix that? Should I just link back to the master page in the body & noscript area, even though content won't be visible? Fine with Google? Lack of content problem? Thank you for reading, and for your help!
Technical SEO | | GregMoine0 -
Maintaining Link Value Of Old URLS With 301 Redirects
Large ecommerce site that has been around for a long time (15+ years.) During that time technology has changed a lot and we are running into issues maintaining 301 redirects for very old urls. For example we have a good amount of links to product and category pages. Some of the old links are to products that still exist and will exist for many years to come.(of note little to no traffic comes via these links. Most of them are close to 9 years old so they are buried deep within articles, forums, or websites) However as we make changes to the site and URL structure these old urls are taking up more resources to continue to maintain 301 redirects. I am Leary of no longer supporting them because I do not want it to impact rankings however there is concern on how much development time and technology resources it takes to continue to support as time goes on. Does anyone have experience handling redirects 3 or 4 url structures old? Looking for insight from someone who has crossed this bridge before.
Technical SEO | | RMATVMC0 -
Direct link vs 302 redirect
So we have recently relaunched a site that we manage. As part of this we have changed the domain. The webdesign agency that built the new site have implemented a direct link from the old domain to the new domain. What is best practice a direct link or a 302 redirect? Thanks
Technical SEO | | cbarron0 -
Redirect Without Passing Old Page Properties
Is there a way to redirect one page to another, e.g. test.com/ to test.com/home, without passing link juice or any other associated properties of the latter to the former?
Technical SEO | | NTGproducts0 -
Title tag not changing in Google. Can somebody take a look for me?
I'm using Yoast SEO plugin for the website. The website is http://www.emerypharmaservices.com. It appears on the webpage, the title tag is correct (home page should be Contract Laboratory Research Services for Analytical Chemistry and Microbiology), however, in Google it only says Emeryville Pharmaceutical Services. Could this be due to my settings? Please advise. Thank you
Technical SEO | | leopold49520 -
I have a site that has both http:// and https:// versions indexed, e.g. https://www.homepage.com/ and http://www.homepage.com/. How do I de-index the https// versions without losing the link juice that is going to the https://homepage.com/ pages?
I can't 301 https// to http:// since there are some form pages that need to be https:// The site has 20,000 + pages so individually 301ing each page would be a nightmare. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Technical SEO | | fthead90