Domain migration via Wordpress - organic still 60% down four months later
-
Hi guys!Almost four months ago I performed a Wordpress domain migration. Three pet-based sites were migrated into a new pet-based one that incorporated them all - the new site is petskb.com and 240 posts were migrated.The site migration was performed via 301 wildcard re-directs using the .htaccess files in the old domains, which are still in place and working. I also used the site move tool in GSC. Afterwards, I performed an audit of the new site to ensure that all the old urls were being re-directed to the new one, which they were (and are). There have been no manual actions reported in GSC.The results have been very poor. A small few of the articles that were in the top 10 moved over and I quickly claimed the same positions in the new site. Most did not though and still sit >100 in the SERP or absolutely nowhere (or even omitted) using the main keyword.I've created about 60 new articles (using the same SEO analysis I did previously) since that time on the new site and not one of them has ranked <100 in all that time, whereas on the old sites they would initially rank somewhere in the top 50 after a couple of days and work their way up over the months. These new posts haven't moved though. The posts that were published on the new site four months ago are still in the exact same position.So, I've created new content, re-submitted the sitemap and manually requested re-indexing of the posts. Nothing has changed. I've hired SEO's and not one has found any problems with my site or how I performed the migration. Clearly there is a problem though. The original posts that were ranking previously and all the new posts have not moved in the SERP. There were a few spammy links pointing to the new domain but nothing significant, I did disavow these though - no more than on the old sites though.As a test, I created a new post on another domain which has no posts with the same long-tail keyword as one that has been on my new site for almost four months. The one I posted on the new domain out-ranked the one on petskb after just two days.Can anyone help? If you can I will personally travel to where you live and buy you several beers.Thanks,Matt
-
Hello Matt,
As mentioned, it will take time for Google to crawl the old site's URLs, de-index them and transfer the rank to the new site. That process should take a few months to complete, so all you can do is wait. Trying to manually request crawling through the search console can speed up the process a little but in the end, it will still take its time.
As to why the new articles aren't ranking, the issue should be looked over individually to your site, as there are many factors that contribute to a post ranking higher or lower in the SERPs. Feel free to contact me if you need an analysis and possible solutions for the issue.
Daniel Rika - Dalerio Consulting
https://dalerioconsulting.com/
[email protected] -
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for replying - it's appreciated.
Firstly, yes - to answer your question, there are around 180 (out of 300 articles) of the old articles that are still indexed. By 'indexed' I mean if you type site: <old_url>they come up. If you go into GSC and perform an inspection of the old url though it does say that the 'URL is not on Google'. So, is it indexed or not?</old_url>
I have manually tried to re-index (via GSC) these old urls but they still exist months later. So, I guess my next question is - how do I get Google to de-index the old urls?
Also, I'm not sure why this would prevent the 60 articles that have been created during these last few months not to rank - but I guess this is a secondary question to the one above as I would suspect that's the priority!
Cheers,
Matt
-
One of the most comprehensive case studies that comes to mind for this issue is the following from Jeff Baker:
This Is What Happens When You Accidentally De-Index Your Site from GoogleMy main suspicion as to why the new site isn't ranking as well would be because often times Google is very slow at re-crawling the pages on your site. If Google hasn't re-crawled the old domain and documented the 301 redirect, then it hasn't transferred the rank of the old domain to the new one. In order to verify this, you should check if the old article page has de-indexed. If it hasn't de-indexed and the new site is ranking in a low position, then it means that the new site is ranking by itself without the support of the 301 redirect.
There is bound to be some change in rank as you joined several sites into a new domain, but since the topic is very similar, then the change should be very small. With time Google should be able to slowly crawl all the pages and transfer their authority to the new one.
Please let me know if my theory holds ground and whether there's anything else I can assist with.
Daniel Rika - Dalerio Consulting
https://dalerioconsulting.com/
[email protected]
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
4-5 New High Quality Links/Month, Enough to Increase Domain Authority?
The link profile on our domain is poor and our domain authority is only 18. In April we migrated domains and our domain authority tumbled from 24 to 8 and as of August had recovered to 18. Since August we have engaged in a link building campaign. We are getting 4-5 new links per month. They are good quality. Can we expect to see see an increase in our domain authority? If so, when? The domain is www.metro-manhattan.com. The new links to date are below: <colgroup><col width="114"><col width="252"><col width="377"><col width="296"><col width="97"></colgroup>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kingalan1
| Status | Anchor text | Final URL | Terget URL | Live date |
| | | | | |
| Done | office space for rent in Manhattan | | | |
| | | | /commercial-space/office-space | 9/20/2018 |
| Done | medical office for rent | | /commercial-space/medical-space | 9/21/2018 |
| Done | office space for rent in Manhattan | | /commercial-space/office-space | 9/23/2018 |
| Done | office space for rent in NYC | | /commercial-space/medical-space | 9/24/2018 |
| Skipped | | | | |
| | | | /commercial-space/medical-space | 10/8/2018 |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |0 -
Link building - still effective ?
Hi, I know 70-80% of the links on Google have no-follow keyword. What I need to know is if link building by using guest posting and a combination of no-follow links through social media is still effective ? What would you suggest in terms of link building. I have read all the articles on moz and everything, but I need a personal touch on this matter. Thanks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kiraftw
Andrei0 -
Should I serve images from the same Top level domain as the current domain?
We run a multidomain e-commerce website that targets each country respectively: .be -> Belgium .co.uk -> United Kingdom etc... .com for all other countries We also serve our product images via a media subdomain eg. "media.ourdomain.be/image.jpg"
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jef2220
This means that all TLD's contain the images of the .be media subdomain. Which is acually seen as an outbound link. We are considering to change this setup so that it serves the images from the same domain as the current TLD, which would make more sense: .be will serve images from media.ourdomain.be .co.uk -> media.ourdomain.co.uk etc.. My question is: Does google image search take the extension of the TLD into consideration? So that for example German users will be more likely to see an image that is served on a .de domain?0 -
Microsite as a stand-alone site under one domain and sub-domained under another: duplicate content penalty?
We developed and maintain a microsite (example: www.coolprograms.org) for a non-profit that lives outside their main domain name (www.nonprofit-mainsite.org) and features content related to a particular offering of theirs. They are utilizing a Google Grant to run AdWords campaigns related to awareness. They currently drive traffic from the AdWords campaigns to both the microsite (www.coolprograms.org) and their main site (www.nonprofit-mainsite.org). Google recently announced a change in their policy regarding what domains a Google Grant recipient can send traffic to via AdWords: https://support.google.com/nonprofits/answer/1657899?hl=en. The ads must all resolve to one root domain name (nonprofit-mainsite.org). If we were to subdomain the microsite (example: coolprograms.nonprofit-mainsite.org) and keep serving the same content via the microsite domain (www.coolprograms.org) is there a risk of being penalized for duplicate content? Are there other things we should be considering?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | marketing-iq0 -
Redirection Effects on Sub Domain
Hi, I would try to summarize my query through an example. Lets say site A (www.siteA.com) have two sub domain (subdomain1.siteA.com & subdomain2.siteA.com) and another site B ( www.siteB.com ) have no sub domain. Due to some obvious reason we need re direct the site site A (www.siteA.com) to site B ( www.siteB.com ) and one of the sub domain (subdomain1.siteA.com) to site B (subdomain1.siteB.com). Now the question is that in case of ( subdomain2.siteA.com ) can we keep the sub domain to site A even though site A has been re directed to site B ? Reasons for keeping this can be traffic, earnings etc. Is it possible to keep it like that or provision for further optimization? Plz help.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ITRIX0 -
Why is Google Still Penalizing My Site?
We got hit pretty hard by Penguin. There were some bad link issues which we've cleared up and we also had a pretty unique situation stemming from about a year ago when we changed the name of the company and created a whole new site with similar content under a different URL. We used the same phone number and address, and left the old site up as it was still performing well. Google didn't care for that so we eventually used 301 redirects to push the link juice from the old site to the new site. That's the background, here's the problem...... We've partially recovered, but there are several keywords that haven't come back anywhere near where they were in Google. We have higher page rank and more links than our competition and are performing in the top 5 for some of our keywords. Other, similar keywords, where we used to be in the top 5, we are now down on page 4 or 5. Our website is www.hudsoncabinetrydesign.com. We build custom cabinetry and furniture in Westchester County, NY just north of NYC. Examples - For "custom built-ins new york" we are number 3 on Google, number 1 on Bing/Yahoo. For "custom kitchen cabinetry ny" we are number 3 on Bing/Yahoo, not in the top 50 on Google. For "custom radiator covers ny" we used to be #1 on Google, are currently #48, currently #2 on Bing/Yahoo. Obviously, we've done something to upset the Google, but we've run out of ideas as to what it could be. Any ideas as to what is going on? Thanks so much for your feedback, Doug B.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | doug_b0 -
Exact match domain marketing?
Hi All, I've managed to secure a couple of exact match domains that are closely related to my main site but I'm a bit unsure of how to make best use of them. My plan is to generate revenue by ranking high for the exact match terms, moving the visitor onto the main site to take their details and payment. Naturally I want this satelite site to be very similar so that I can keep the brand continuety going and maintain a smooth transition to the main site. My main concerns however are: Will I get punished for using the same Navigation menu, logo and code as my main site? The navigation menu will link to pages on the main site, and this satelite site will most likely only consist of an index page and about 5 - 10 individual content pages. 2)I want the branding on this satelite site to be the same as my main site. Will I be punished for the difference in branding vs domain name? I know the SE's are unlikely to pick it up because the logo is an image but is there a risk of human editing? I want to link from the main site to the satelite site to give it a bit of a boost and to get through a possible sandbox. If the satelite has numerous links to the main site and the main site is linking to the satelite site will there be any benefit? Never tried to create a site like this so a bit nervous about impacting the main site. Thank in advance.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Mulith0 -
Migrating a site
Hello, I have what a I think it's a noob question.. I have a medium size website and need to put it into maintenance for the next 2 months, and afterwards activate a completly new site. My client asked me to do this, cause the same people whoe run the constant flow of information on the site, are the ones who are going to develop the new site, so he wants to just close it out So... what are the steps for doing this with minimum impact on any SEO advances made this past months?.. How do I tell the search engines, Hey, just under maintenance for a while....then... i'm back in the game but this is my new structure. and the old one should go here
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | daniel.alvarez0