.com or .net what is the answer

[jgmayes]

Ok. My site has been running as whitetail-mafia.com for about 3 years now. I recently switched to a new host (had to say good bye to godaddy). In the change I switched the site to whitetail-mafia.net

I have whitetail-mafia.com, whitetailmafia.com, and whitetailmafia.net set for a 301 redirect to whitetail-mafia.net. I have recently transferred all of these to the same host now.

However, during my first run at OpenExplorer I found that the old site whitetail-mafia.com was carrying some good weight.

Did I shoot myself in the foot? Should I transfer everything back to .com and redirect to it since it has some history? Will my rankings for .com transfer over to the .net with the 301 redirect?

looking for the best advice here before I spend too much time having to rebuild...

[SEOBrent]

Hi Jason,

What was your reasoning for swapping to .net? It sounds like you need to keep your aged domain and 301 all your newly purchased domains over to it.

-Brent

[jgmayes]

originally it was a development thing, because .com was on godaddy and I was bringing a new site up using .net on a new host. As of today I have transferred all domains to the new host.

The other reason is that we changed our name from Whitetail Mafia to Whitetail Mafia Outdoor Networks. The 3rd reason is .... I am a SEO dumby and finally learnign some of the stuff I should have learned a few years ago.

So do you recommend that I go back to .com? should be easy to do now, instead of later....

[AdoptionHelp]

I would recommend going back to your .com address. It presumably has more inbound links, and has a longer history, both of which are going to make it the better performing domain name. That being said, 301 redirects can move a lot of your link juice, most estimates I hear are somewhere in the 90% ballpark. So if this is a technical challenge for you or would otherwise take a lot of time, it may not be worth it.

If you have the resources, move everything back to your original domain.

[SEOBrent]

Hi Jason,

Yes i'd swap back to the .com, also try and keep the link structure the same as your old site or you will lose all your current search engine traffic.

-Brent