Help with domain redirect advice please!
-
I run the website http://buildyourjacket.com. We have other domains as well, most importantly www.buildyourjacket.com and cvcsports.com. If you Google "letterman jackets" (our primary search term) cvcsports.com shows up as the first result (yay!). But that is not what we want. Until a few weeks ago, Google would show http://buildyourjacket.com as the domain for the first search result from "letterman jackets". But then a few weeks that changed. I don't know how that could have happened. There are two reasons why we want the domain http://buildyourjacket.com to be the one that shows up: 1) It's a better sounding/looking domain and 2) When it was showing up, Google also showed right below the domain another link of our that said "Build Your Own Jacket" which definitely helped us get more clicks. Can someone please help me and tell me what I should do? Thank you so much.
-
Google's crawl rate varies based on many factors. For example, the New York Times website (nyt.com) probably has it's home page and category pages crawled a few times each day. A website such as yours which has static content, offers few links and has low DA may require a few weeks to be fully crawled.
You can check Google's cache date for your pages on any search result page. Near most results you will see the word "cached". Click the cached link and you will see a header which offers a date/time stamp of when the cache was updated.
-
Ok I understand. And how long does it take Google to crawl? And how will I know for sure that it did?
I just became a PRO member a couple days ago and the help I have received is amazing!
-
With respect to the canonical tag, the two sites are exact duplicates of each other, right? I see pages titled "Custom Super Bowl Varsity Jackets" and so forth. Find a page where the cvc site ranks higher and use the canonical tag to point from that cvc page to the identical page on the buildyourjacket.com site.
This method will allow you to see exactly how Google will treat the change for your site without compromising your #1 spot for the other term. Prior to making this change check exactly where both pages (the cvc and buildyourjacket pages) rank for a couple search terms. Make the change, then check again after Google crawls your sites. Once again keep in mind the rankings may bounce around a bit.
For helpful content I mean a few hundred words which are relevant to your topic and helpful to users. Your site is VERY thin on content. Even your blog articles are only 1 paragraph.
Take a look at the Lands End Site. The content is very thin, but at least there is some descriptive content that is helpful for users. Also, they include UGC (comments) which adds to the pages content and is helpful. http://www.landsend.com/pp/LuxeRainParka~219219_59.html?bcc=y&action=order_more&sku_0=::IO6&CM_MERCH=IDX_Outerwear--Sale--Women&origin=index
I am sure there are better examples if you look around but this would be a couple steps in the right direction.
-
What do you mean try it with other pages first? Like add that code you said to the About page of cvcsports.com?
And as for helpful content in the jacket builder area - do you think things like: "When you're scrolling through the custom jacket designs, be sure to select the categories to filter the results" and "When adding knit patterns to your varsity jacket, experiment with different styles to see which one you like the most" <-- would phrases like those be good?
-
Since you have the #1 ranking for a sales item you could try the process for a couple other pages first, see how it works, then when you have confidence make the change with your home page.
With respect to the flash, crawlers generally cannot see flash content. I had a conversation with someone today and there are specific methods which can be used on a flash site to help. It would require research and/or hiring a SEO with expertise in that specific area.
If the flash was removed and converted to HTML then the content contained within the flash would immediately be readable to search engines. If the content was of good quality, it would help.
I look at your "build your jacket" page and find it useful. The problem is it has no content at all other then a single line of text. Perhaps add helpful content.
-
Ok. So since I really want buildyourjacket.com to be the primary domain I should add that code and trust in the process?
And as for improving the website, we are planning on converting all the flash to HTML5, would that help? Other than that, what else could I do on the pages where the person builds a jacket without looking spammy?
Thanks again for the help!
-
The short answer is yes, but I need to explain further.
When search engines crawl the web, they locate a lot of duplicate content. For any given page SEs want to provide a link to the original content, otherwise you can create a site, duplicate it 10x then the first page of Google would be 10 links to the same duplicated site.
The canonical tag says "the content on the page you are looking at is the same as page X, give page X the credit and index that page, not this one." So in your case, you have duplicate content, you have chosen which page to index and based on that decision the canonical tag used in the way you described will resolve the issue.
With respect to your ranking, the end result is you should retain your ranking. You will lose a small amount of link juice with the canonical because it is treated similar to a redirect. On the other hand you gain a bit by linking to the other site IF the sites are hosted with different web hosts.
Another thing which would help is to take the links currently pointing to the cvc site and update them to point to the buildyourjacket.com site. This will strengthen the page a bit.
I want to be clear. Your current #1 ranking is VERY weak. Your buildyourjacket.com home page has a DA of 19, PA of 22. The "Build Your Jacket" page is filled with flash but no crawlable content. If anyone creates a new page targeting your keyword and applies best SEO practices to the page, they will take your #1 ranking.
The last point is you can expect the change may cause a bounce. You could disappear from rankings for a couple days, re-appear and disappear again. I have seen the transition go perfectly smooth, and I have seen it take several weeks for the change to settle. There is not a way to promise you to take steps 1,2,3 and then everything will be fine.
-
Ok....so basically if I put that code on the home page of the website then buildyourjacket.com will be the main domain and cvcsports will just disappear? And if so, we won't lose our number one ranking for "letterman jackets" in the shuffle will we? Thanks so much for the help!
-
My apologies. I realize what you mean now.
These sites are an exact duplicate of each other. The home page of your cvc site is indexed as #1, while the Jacket Builder page of the second site is indexed.
The problem is Google recognizes the content is duplicated. They pick one page from each site which is most relevant. This is a mess which needs to be cleaned up.
I would drop down to one site. The way I would make that change is to add the canonical tag to your cvc site.
<link href='http://buildyourjacket.com' rel='canonical' /> should be added to the of your page.
The effect is it will tell search engines your cvc page is a copy and the original should be indexed. Each page from the cvc site should be canonicalized to the relevant page on the buildyourjacket site. Once the pages are properly indexed, the cvc site should be taken down and 301'd to the appropriate pages on the buildyourjacket site.
-
That's what I don't understand. It's the same website. And from October 2010 to June 2011 buildyourjacket.com was the #1 result. And then it just switched. And #19 is one page from buildyourjacket.com - but it is not the home page. The home page does talk about letterman jackets.
-
Currently cvcsports.com is ranked #1 and buildyourjackets.com is ranked #19 for "letterman jackets". You would like to reverse those sites.
There is simply not a means to swap sites. Your content on the buildyourjacket.com is simply not good enough to be ranked #1 currently, and the site needs SEO work.
Comparing the two sites:
#1 ranked site has a title with "Letterman Jackets" in it as the 2nd and 3rd words. #19 ranked site has no title.
The #1 ranked site has content on it talking about letterman jackets. The #19 site has no content.
Your best option is to hire a SEO to help you achieve the best ranking possible for your sites.
-
Thanks for the tips. I will check that out.
To be clear: We already do rank #1 for "letterman jackets", but we are #5 for "varsity jackets", so there is still improvement there.
Also, my main thing right now is figuring out how to get our buildyourjacket.com URL back to be the main one instead of cvcsports.com. cvcsports.com is ours, but we like the buildyourjacket.com URL better.
-
Brandon, the buildyourjacket.com site needs SEO work. The best suggestion is to take the time to read the Beginner's Guide to SEO and apply the guide to your site.
A couple quick pointers:
-
your page is missing a title. The title is a very important part of SEO. If your primary concern is to rank for "letterman jackets" I would recommend a title of "Letterman Jackets | BuildYourJacket.com".
-
Your page is missing H1 and H2 tags. If you want to rank #1 for "letterman jackets" then your H1 tag should be "Letterman Jackets" or something similar.
-
Your pages look nice but they are all flash. Search engines cannot crawl flash. You need some legitimate content on your site so the pages can be indexed.
Good luck.
-
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
-
Moving Shopify from a Sub Domain to the Full Domain
Apologies if this has been asked before. Currently we have a Shopify shop on a subdomain shop.lucybee.com a blog on subdomain blog.lucybee.com and the full domain of course. We'd now like to move everything onto Shopify on the full domain. Therefore the blog rolls into Shopify. We'll manually move pages into Shopify. Any advice or links to resources on how to manage would be gratefully received. Thank you , Jim
Technical SEO | | LucyBee0 -
Please Help! Crawl & Site Errors - Will This Impact My SEO?
Hello Moz, I need urgent help. I remove a tonne of product pages and put everything into one product page to deal with duplicate content. I thought this was a good thing to do until I got an email from Google saying: "Googlebot identified a significant increase in the number of URLs on ****.com that return a 404 (not found) error. " I checked it out and found the problem: 4 Soft 404's
Technical SEO | | crocman
41 Not Found's What do I need to do to fix this? Is it a problem or should I just ignore? I removed all the pages on WordPress but I need to do it somehow manually through Google? I have worked so hard on my SERP's that this will destroy me if I'm penalised. Please can someone advise?0 -
Do you still loose 15% of value of inbound links when you redirect your site from http to https (so all inbound links to http are being redirected to https version)?
I know when you redesign your on website, you loose about 15% internally due to the 301 redirects (see moz article: https://mza.seotoolninja.com/blog/accidental-seo-tests-how-301-redirects-are-likely-impacting-your-brand), but I'm wondering if that also applies to value of inbound links when you redirect your http://www.sitename.com to https://www.sitename.com. I appreciate your help!
Technical SEO | | JBMediaGroup0 -
Ecommerce website - Transition from one subdomain to another. Please help!
Hi MOZers, I have an ecommerce website with its mobile version of the site sitting in a subdomain. It is going to be transferred to another subdomain on the same website. How do I ensure that I save/carry over most of the traffic, authority and equity to the new sudomain? At the moment, we are not looking to get rid of the subdomain but maybe later, yes. Malika
Technical SEO | | Malika10 -
Redirect 301 issue. I changed my domain name and Google is killing me.
Hello SEO community: I have this problem, and I don't know exactly what to do. I recently changed my domain from uclasificados.net to uclasificados.com uclasificados.net was a free classified ads for USA in spanish, and was my most affortable site, so I wanted to convert it to .com because I thought it could get more popular with the .com domain. uclasificados.com was before a free classified ads website for Colombia, but was not very popular and had poor traffic so I moved the Colombian content to uclasificados.co. Since I changed my domain from uclasificados.net to uclasificados.com I have lost a lot of ranking, and l my traffic every day is getting lower. I have already checked the 301 redirections and they are working correctly, but even thought I keep getting less traffic and less money. I have also checked with moz tools both sites link juice, and it says that uclasificados.net have better reputation. So I was wondering if I change it back and redirect uclasificados.com to uclasificados.net but I worrie that if I do that, maybe I can make things worse. What do you recommend me?
Technical SEO | | capmartin850 -
I have a blog on a sub domain, would you move it to the rood domain in a directory?
I have a blog that preforms fairly well on a sub domain, but after reading a post that Rand made to the Q & A I am thinking about moving it to the main domain in a sub directory. What are your thoughts on this? Here are some stats on it. The blog currently gets about 5 x the traffic of the main domain. The domain is older, 2008 creation date. They pretty much register for the same keywords.
Technical SEO | | LesleyPaone0 -
Getting a link removed from brand search - please help!
Hello all you mozzers! Ive just come into work with an established company who have one major problem when you google "palicomp" the second link that comes up is to consumeractiongroup with a thread that has been damaging the business for over 2 years, this thread is absolutely not representative of the business today. Strangely stronger links in search have better authority but google has ranked this post as being highly relevant to the business, does anybody know of any strategies we can do to get this removed, we have contacted consumeractiongroup directly but they are not prepared to move it. Does anyone have any idea of removal ideas or what we can do its crippling our business, we cant work out as to why its ranking better! Chris
Technical SEO | | palicomp0 -
Domains redirect influence search rankings
Hi seomoz, I'm currently optimizing a website which is www.photobookworldwide.com and the ranking is on 2nd page, but looking at the result this morning, instead of showing photobookworldwide.com, it show other result which is www.photobooklaos.com on 2nd page for the keyword photobooks. Our web developer using virtual domain, and redirected photobooklaos.com to photobookworldwide.com. Any solution for this? need you guys to help me on this. Cheers Gerald
Technical SEO | | greathokage0