Move established site from .co.uk to .org - good or bad idea?

[Zilla]

I am currently considering moving our site from the current .co.uk domain to the .org version which we also own.

The site is established and indexed for 7 years, ranks well and has circa 10k traffic per month which is mainly UK & US traffic.

The reason for the change to the .org domain is to make the site more global facing and give us the opportunity to develop the site into multi language within directories (.org/es/ etc.) and then target those to the local search engines. For the kind of site it is (community based) it wouldn’t really work to split this into lots of separate country targeted domains.

So the choice is to either stick with the .co.uk and add the other foreign language specific content in directories within the .co.uk or move to the .org and do the same (there is also a potential third option of purchasing the .com which is currently unused but that could be pricey!)

We are also planning a big overhaul of the site with redesign, lots of added content and reorganisation of the site – but are thinking that it would be better to move the domain on a 1:1 basis first with the current design, content and URL structure in place and then do the other changes 2 or 3 months down the line.

I have read up on SEOmoz, google guidelines etc on moving a site to a new domain and understand the theoretical approach of moving the site and the steps to take (1to1 301 redirects, sitemaps on old and new etc) and I will retain ownership of the .co.uk so the redirects can remain in place indefinitely.

However having worked so hard to get the site to where it is in the search engines and traffic levels I am very worried about whether the domain change is a good move. I am more than happy to accept a temporary fluctuation in rankings & traffic for 1 – 4 weeks as reported may happen as long as I can be sure it will return after a temporary period and be as strong (or almost as strong) as the previous rankings / traffic.

Looking for peoples experiences to give me the confidence / reassurance to go ahead with this or any info on why I shouldn’t

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Adrian.

[EGOL]

If you redirect you will probably lose a small amount of linkjuice and possibly some anchor text value.

Do you have your closest competitors soundly beaten?

If you are clearly the dominant site in your niche then your risk of loss is lower but still possible.

(I would go after that .com.... I would be willing to pay quite a bit for it)

[Catalyste]

Hi Adrian,

Since your site is an established and indexed for 7 years property, I would not move it since

1- The links are actually pointing at your .co.uk domain and that won't change even with proper redirection.

2- People must probably knows this URL in some proportion

3- Your domain has build a trust from search engines that I would not play with to start from a new one.

Maybe someone would think different, but I prefer building a new site with new content or new content to my site then to risk it's futur.

[EGOL]

I agree that there is more risk moving an older site than a newer site.

If you lost 10% of a little it would not be much... but if you lost 10% of a lot then that would be disappointing.

[Zilla]

Thanks both for your responses.

Although we enjoy good rankings and good traffic levels we are in one of the most competitive (SEO wise) sector (Gambling Affiliate) so we are no where near the dominant player for our key terms which I guess makes this sort of move even more risky.

EGOL – when you say you would go after the .com – do you mean for the purpose of blocking competition using it (ie: buy it to redirect to .co.uk) or would it make a difference to the argument for moving to a different domain if it was the .com instead of the .org?

So I guess the other question is if you guys think it is too risky to move the domain – do you think it is ok to build a multi language site on the .co.uk in directories or would it be better to try and buy all the country specific domains .es .de .fr etc.. (ideally wanted to keep it all under one domain as there will be shared forums and shared member backend and tracking all happening but will consider all options.)

[EGOL]

If you are going to make this site enormously popular then owning the .com will allow you stop the loss of type-in traffic to the .com domain.

For popular .org .gov .net and other domain extensions, lots of visitors instinctively type .com as the domain.  I do it often myself when attempting to visit some .gov and .org sites.  I am usually surprised at what I find there.

I know of a couple .com domains that get thousands of visitors per day because visitors don't type .gov as the extension.