Redirect EMD to new brandable domain

[Antti]

I have a site that's making good money and has nice rankings. However, the niche is quite small and I can't grow it with content anymore.

Problem is that the domain name is about only one topic of a wider niche, so it wouldn't make any sense to include additional topics. So I thought maybe I could buy a new domain, 301 redirect existing content while maintaining rankings and scale it with new content. Think recurvebows.com redirected to huntingbows.com which would include longbows, crossbows, compound bows etc...

Can that be done and would I lose rankings due to it short term / long term?

What if I bought dropped domain from even higher level topic (bows.com), as even huntingbows.com is quite small and I probably wouldn't find 1:1 old domain?

Thanks for answers!

 

[Darth]

Check out this guys recents threads in depth. He more or less did the exact same thing recently.
https://www.buildersociety.com/members/animalstyle.509/

 

[Ryuzaki]

If you're rankings are being supported by the EMD, then expect to loose that support. Also, I'd expect a good shake-up in general that could last up to 3-6 months and even take a full year before it fully settles in.

In general, I'd think of it as taking a step backwards that enables you to take 100 steps forward, whereas previously you had zero steps forward available. And you can offset the "losses" by hustling for new ranks with new content and a lot of marketing. That's what I'd recommend doing. Don't wait to see what happens, just keep plowing forward in a standard fashion.

What you don't want to do is begin too heavily change the architecture of the site all at once. Move the old content to whatever new category you want, set up your 301's, and just leave all of that alone after that. Don't start re-working the content, adding modules, and all this other stuff. You'll extend your stay in the dumps and possibly make it permanent. For more of an explanation on why this occurs, see Point #1 of this post.

 

[Antti]

Thanks guys!

I don't know how I missed those animalstyle's first 2 threads. Though it seems he's not going to see it through. So we will not see what would have happened if he stayed with the original plan. I can't blame him, I don't know if I'd have the nerves either.

I'm guessing I'm not getting a lot of support from the EMD, so I'm not so worried about that. The site is around 3 years old, and I have only been only gaining ranks with each major G updates. Most of my ranks are with variations of "coke" with the domain named "coca-cola.com" (with hyphen). Including #5 with the niche defining "coke". Of course search term "coca cola" is #2, but the volume on it is significantly lower than with "coke".

@Ryuzaki

Would you buy new domain or find an existing domain with only vertical level relevance? So no new huntingbows.com, but old bows.com?

By new content you mean articles about longbows and leave the existing recurvebows content untouched for a while? Would I gain any momentum for the new content as they are now on same domain? I assume I could still internally link from old content where it's relevant?

 

[Ryuzaki]

Most of my ranks are with variations of "coke" with the domain named "coca-cola.com" (with hyphen).

I wouldn't assume that it's not helping currently. Synonyms, abbreviations, etc... Google is treating them as nearly the same term these days.

For instance, I just tried to come up with an example. I searched "digital piano" expecting to see "digital keyboard" too. I didn't, but what I saw was an equivalence between "digital piano" and "electric piano." I would assume, in your coke example, that it's helping and that you'll lose some of that help, or all of it, depending on the re-branding.

Would you buy new domain or find an existing domain with only vertical level relevance? So no new huntingbows.com, but old bows.com?

I think:

• +1: If you can afford an old, really nice domain that hasn't been dropped, with a great brand name, and if you measure it against potential profits and think it's worth it, then sure.
• +3: Bonus points if it has a site live on it that's been indexed the whole time.
• +2: More Bonus points if you can keep the site design and port in your old content and 301 it over (or the other way around)
• +1: If the domain has great links you can retain.

Consider too, if you're going to blow cash on a great domain, can you get a domain with content and links too? Will you be better off merging your current site into this better site? Or can you get a lesser site with a better domain, move your old site to the new domain and merge in the old content?

Or you can just get a new/old domain without the extra frills and move the site to the new address.

I started my main project on a new domain because I was bootstrapping. If you can afford to bypass a ton of work and waiting time, then for sure, do it if it makes sense for this project. My next projects will likely all begin by purchasing an already established site and then optimizing it before expanding.

By new content you mean articles about longbows and leave the existing recurvebows content untouched for a while?

Yeah, or more content about recurve bows. Just don't start hacking the old content up. Let Google re-calculate the move for those posts without needing to understand the 100 changes you made to the content too. Let all of the old stuff settle while you expand that section with new content or any of the new sections you have planned.

Plan the move, the new URL locations, the 301's and all of that in advance. Get it done fast, alert Google of the change of address in the Search Console, and then leave anything related to it alone. Adding new content to new URLs is fine. Tinkering with the other stuff can doom you (as illustrated in the link in my post above).

Would I gain any momentum for the new content as they are now on same domain?

I'm not sure I understand this question. The new content should benefit from the site-wide metrics you've accumulated on the old domain, since you're 301-ing it all over. They will rise to the level of your overall average power.

 

[Antti]

I wouldn't assume that it's not helping currently. Synonyms, abbreviations, etc... Google is treating them as nearly the same term these days.

For instance, I just tried to come up with an example. I searched "digital piano" expecting to see "digital keyboard" too. I didn't, but what I saw was an equivalence between "digital piano" and "electric piano." I would assume, in your coke example, that it's helping and that you'll lose some of that help, or all of it, depending on the re-branding.

Yea, of course it will help but hopefully all the rankings are not supported only because of the domain name. In that case it would be suicide to switch to another domain?

• +1: If you can afford an old, really nice domain that hasn't been dropped, with a great brand name, and if you measure it against potential profits and think it's worth it, then sure.
• +3: Bonus points if it has a site live on it that's been indexed the whole time.
• +2: More Bonus points if you can keep the site design and port in your old content and 301 it over (or the other way around)
• +1: If the domain has great links you can retain.

I was thinking of just buying a dropped domain with some authority and links pointing to it... Could it do more harm than good if it has dropped / deindexed?

Consider too, if you're going to blow cash on a great domain, can you get a domain with content and links too? Will you be better off merging your current site into this better site? Or can you get a lesser site with a better domain, move your old site to the new domain and merge in the old content?

Thanks, that's great advice. Actually I haven't thought of that at all...

I started my main project on a new domain because I was bootstrapping. If you can afford to bypass a ton of work and waiting time, then for sure, do it if it makes sense for this project. My next projects will likely all begin by purchasing an already established site and then optimizing it before expanding.

...which is bit odd, considering I bought this site and been growing it. But as I'm still rookie, I didn't even think about the limits of expanding it because of the domain name. Though it has already paid itself and the profit per month is around 3x since I bought it.

Yeah, or more content about recurve bows. Just don't start hacking the old content up. Let Google re-calculate the move for those posts without needing to understand the 100 changes you made to the content too. Let all of the old stuff settle while you expand that section with new content or any of the new sections you have planned.

Plan the move, the new URL locations, the 301's and all of that in advance. Get it done fast, alert Google of the change of address in the Search Console, and then leave anything related to it alone. Adding new content to new URLs is fine. Tinkering with the other stuff can doom you (as illustrated in the link in my post above).

Seems logical, thank you!

I'm not sure I understand this question. The new content should benefit from the site-wide metrics you've accumulated on the old domain, since you're 301-ing it all over. They will rise to the level of your overall average power.

I understand the new content related to old (recurvebows) would benefit from it. But I'm wondering the content about longbows as I don't have any authority on the subject. I assume domain would still help?