Should I use 301 redirects for SEO / for a new website vs. old site?
Question: -
Q. How advisable is it to use the 301 Permanent redirection for the entire website. (I have a website which was moved from its original domain to a new one which is not the best suitable and I want to move it back to its original domain name. Can I use the 301 permanent to do that?) And If we are moving our domain from .net to say .com, is there a way we can retain the old domains PR and the search engine positions for the new .com domain. What is more advisable, to redirect or to keep both of them with different content on them and linking back to each other?
Answer: -
Basically the answer is: no. In the short run, you can use 301 redirects to take incoming traffic from Google and 'redirect' it to your new website. But, over time, Google will follow this trail and transfer / reindex the new site.
The inbound links that went to the OLD site are NOT TRANSFERRABLE, so it is not possible to transfer the PageRank from the OLD site to the NEW site. If you have a site that has a lot of inbound links to it, it is advisable to keep that old domain as long as possible. You really have to go back and contact all of those inbound links and reset them to the new domain.
Another strategy would be at the DNS level. Make the entire OLD DOMAIN point to the new website, and retain the OLD PAGES that enjoy links. But build NEW PAGES on the NEW DOMAIN and work on building up their link strategies. Over time, you overlap the two sites, and may be able to maintain some of the PageRank / inbound links.
Short run, it is better to keep them separate. But long run, it is better to organize them into one POWERFUL domain / website and it is also less maintenance. I wish there were an easier way of resolving this sort of (common) migration issue!
Hope this helps!
- Jason McDonald - info@jm-seo.org
|
