301 Redirect from unused domain

[wesdunn1977]

Hi All

First question here so go easy.. I have a property site which is working well so far considering it;s early days, unfortunately some of my earlier efforts did not go so well and one in particular I pretty much destroyed in my attempts to improve the site SEO. Lucky enough my SEO skills have improved quite a bit lately, largely thanks to the great tools, tutorials and experts here at Moz

My question is whether I can use a 301 redirect to pass the domain authority and any link equity from an unused site to the one that ive done a better job on? it would seem a little sketchy to me and I would prefer not to get slapped and penalized "again" for doing something dodgy...

Thanks everyone and thanks for all the help over the last 6 months or so..

Wes Dunn

[Matt-Williamson]

Hi Wes - so I take you are asking if you can 301 redirect your old domain that you had a penalty on from dodgy links? Can you clarify what you did and what you think has hurt your old domain? Sudden ranking/traffic drop? Manual action in Google Webmaster Tools?

At the end of the day if you have had a penalty on your old site i wouldn't recommend using a 301 redirect to try and pass authority of your old penalized domain as it is known that the penalty will flow. However if you have done work to clear up the issue and have removed links and done a disavow if required then you should be fine.

As with anything in the wonderful world of SEO if it sounds to good to be true it usually is and I would go with your gut - "it would seem a little sketchy to me and I would prefer not to get slapped and penalized "again" for doing something dodgy..."

I hope this helps!

[wesdunn1977]

Hi Matt

Thanks alot for the reply, there is nothing really wrong with the domain concerning links etc as far as I know, I just made a bit of a mess of the site by changing, category bases, taxonomy names, posts types etc, you are right about the wonderful world of SEO, It has been a frustrating year or so learning by my mistakes but very rewarding as my knowledge and skills improve, I am very grateful to everyone here for that and the Moz Pro tools has been a massive help also.

My old domain seemed to incur 2 penalties due to penguin updates but I just put that down to the mess I had made really, duplicate content was possibly a reason as I had no incline about cannonicalization and the changes I made duplicated just about everything multiple times, If Google issues penalties for providing a poor user experience then I probably got hit with a few of those also.. I could write several pages about bad mistakes I have made previously but so far Ive never had a Manual Action message or anything from Google to indicate Ive really messed up....

Thanks again for the reply, the new site is in much better shape than the old one ever was so perhaps it's best not to try and cut any corners

regards

Wes Dunn

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hi Wes,

"I can use a 301 redirect to pass the domain authority and any link equity from an unused site to the one that ive done a better job on?"

Absolutely technically can however in this case does not seem like it would be a wise decision.

I agree with Matt.

I guess I'm wondering if you were manually penalized?

On the whole it would be unwise to 301 redirect something that you believe to be spammy to something that you've worked hard to correct.

Something to keep in mind & very important. How relevant are the back links to what you're doing? if you have powerful links that are relevant you are welcome to ask the webmaster to point them to your "new site"

My hats off to you for doing the right thing. You might think of writing a

YouMoz on all the things you did that were incorrect and learn from. I believe it would get a high amount of readers.

Moz Rocks agree with you 100% on that.

Everything you do that takes patience and time is worth it at the end.

Check out https://www.distilled.net/u/ it complements Moz.

All best,

Thomas

[wesdunn1977]

Hi Thomas

I appreciate you taking the time to reply, as far I know I was never manually penalized, I used a tool called Fruition to identify if my old site had been affected by any google updates, in most cases my site was affected negatively, to be honest I have still not worked out the best way to build links other than to write high quality content that s worthy of "Earning" links. looking around at the competition there is no doubt in my mind that most are buying links from higher authority domains in order to boost their page rank and domain authority etc.

I have decided not to try and push any of the old rank to the new site via a 301, it just seems a shame that all the hard work will go to waste really, but at least I have learned from the experience.:-)

I will take another look at YouMoz, Ive never been afraid of telling people about things I have done particularly badly, Equally Im happy to broadcast something I have done quite well, it makes for better reading when you read about someone misfortunes though so I could probably patent it and turn it into a worldwide smash, "The SEO Woes of Wes" has a nice ring to it..

Thanks and best regards Thomas

Wes Dunn

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hi Wes,

In my opinion in my opinion Fruition was more accurate beginning now it seems they try to scare people into purchasing their services. Just my $.02

I would not 301 the old site.

I completely agree link earning is really what this is about regardless of what it's called there is a great how to on link building by  http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building

I will definitely read the post if you write it I like energy and optimism it will help you immensely throughout career.

Sincerely,

Thomas

[wesdunn1977]

Hi Thomas

Thanks a lot, I have read this article briefly before but I need to put some proper time aside to really absorb it, I'm always optimistic and have a background in IT Training so it's in my nature to want to help others improve, The SEO world is so vast, it's great to know there are so many talented SEO's here for me to learn from and hopefully pass what I have learnt down to others.

I will definitely do the Youmoz when I have a little free time, I would love to get some feedback from you and others and the community so stay tuned

Thanks again for your support, it means a great deal

Best regards

Wes Dunn

[BlueprintMarketing]

Wes,

I would be more than happy to give you my feedback that's awesome that you are starting a YouMoz!

Your right Moz this full of very talented SEO's Can't beat it.

I have one more suggestion this is something I really enjoy and it's helped my career immensely.

I would definitely sign up for SearchLove, MozCon,  inbound, SMX and other marketing conferences.

I just returned from SearchLove San Diego and inbound 2014 I can tell you firsthand they are worth every penny. Your enthusiasm for this is fantastic and my best recommendation. I would recommend you do VIP you have the opportunity to have dinner with the speakers and get to know them. This led to more clients and more resources for me. Not to mention a whole lot of fun.

I have attached a photograph of the  3rd day for me but is 2nd day of SearchLove.

My interactive schedule this is something you can watch while you watch the speakers and ask questions and do way more it's really cool. The reason I posted this is you might see somebody familiar at the very bottom is a speaker. He was also a speaker at SearchLove of Boston earlier this year. I have the pleasure of seeing him again at inbound 2014 that ended last week.

Of course MozCon awesome conference I recommend you go to As many as possible.

I love the way Moz teaches I think they do a top-notch job however because when SEOmoz became an SAAS company they needed a partner to give their existing clients to they chose Distilled one of my favorite companies. There has been a very good relationship to say the least between Moz & Distilled making their offerings very complementary in my opinion to each other.

Distilled is a marketing agency that offers a tool that was built to teach their own people.

They released it approximately 3 years ago ( could be off by a year) I of course use both Moz and distilled University because they each offers so much when combined together they offer even more. the 2nd photograph attached is a personal Distilled U page showing what you have done and it's a considerable amount of time that will take to finish all the courses. And they're constantly adding new ones. However, this is great when dealing with clients because you can show them what you have done and in my opinion this  is very valuable.

Check out distilled.net/u it is really an awesome way to practice what you've learned as well as obviously take in the always evolving new information in the search marketing world.

I hope that all this is helpful and hopefully I will see you at the next MozCon & SearchLove

Sincerely,

Thomas

DUTsPeT.png T1I5mSR.png