301 redirect .com to .nl

[rodjer]

Hi guys,

We have two job websites: one international job website (.com, PR5) and one Dutch job website (.nl, PR0).

We have decided to focus on our Dutch job website and want to 301 redirect the international website to the Dutch website. Will this give us the boost we are hoping for on the Dutch site? Or does a .com redirect to .nl work different than a .nl to .nl redirect for example. We're hoping that the international juice will boost our Dutch website of course.

Looking forward to your thoughts!

[TecmarkUK]

Hi Rodjer,

I think you'll see the benefit from this. We've redirected .coms to .co.uk domains in similar circumstances before and always seen a benefit from it.

Best of luck!

[mihaiaperghis]

A 301 redirect would typically pass the old domain's link metrics to the new domain (and any penalties if they exist). Theoretically you would get a boost to the Dutch website.

However, there are a few things you should be aware of:

1. You won't be able to use the international version of the website again. Also, a 301 means "permanent redirect", so Google will likely deindex the old domain, and would be hard to get it back up if you change your mind later.
2. You should redirect page-to-page instead of redirecting all of the old domain's pages to just the homepage of the new domain. Otherwise the redirect will have a smaller effect.
3. A .nl domain is a ccTLD geo-targeted domain. You won't be able to rank as well for international queries (e.g. english) as you did with the .com gTLD. Consequently, some of the websites linking to you might also remove the links if they notice the website is now in Dutch.

Hope this helps, cheers!

[rodjer]

Thanks for your response guys! We'll probably give it a go