Domain Migration of high traffic site:

[lcourse]

We plan to perform a domain migration in 6 months time.
I read the different articles on moz relating to domain migration, but some doubts remain:

1. Moving some linkworthy content upfront to new domain was generally recommended. I have such content (free e-learning) that I could move already now to new domain.
   Should I move it now or just 2 months before migration?
   Should I be concerned whether this content and early links could indicate to google a different topical theme of the new domain ? E.g. in our case free elearning app vs a commercial booking of presential courses of my core site which is somehow but not extremely strongly related) and links for elearning app may be very specific from appstores and from sites about mobile apps.

2. we still have some annoying .php3 file extensions in many of our highest traffic pages and I would like to drop the file-extension (no further URL change). It was generally recommended to minimize other changes at the same time of domain migration, but on the other hand implementing later another 301 again may also not be optimum and it would save time to do it all at the same time. Shall I do the removal of the file extension at the same time of the domain migration or rather schedule it for 3 months later?

3. On the same topic, would the domain migration be a good occasion to move to https instead of http at the same time, or also should we rather do this at a different time?

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey

This is one of those jobs that has to be done very carefully and as a rule of thumb I would always look to minimise the number of variables. If you are simply changing the URL from one domain to another then it should be fairly straightforward with 301 redirection for the domain itself and an update to the domain in webmaster tools.

With regards to HTTPS and the .php3 pages you have two options

1. make that change now

2. make that change some point after everything else is changed and stabilised

My thinking here would be to get everything as dialled in as possible BEFORE the move to the new domain. Conduct a full technical audit, SEO audit and do whatever you can to optimise the technical aspects of the site. I am talking squeaky clean technical SEO you can see your face in. So, a change to the php3 files, a move to HTTPS - you could do all of that now (along with anything else you find during the technical audit).

Main thinking here is to get everything as perfect as possible pre move - minimise the surface area for potential problems - minimise the number of variables when you make the change - then should anything go wrong you have as clear an idea as possible where the problem lies.

My main advice is to simplify the move as much as possible so anything you can do now rather than later will only make your life easier and the move simpler.

Hope that helps!

Marcus

[hellemans]

2. we still have some annoying .php3 file extensions in many of our highest traffic pages and I would like to drop the file-extension (no further URL change). It was generally recommended to minimize other changes at the same time of domain migration, but on the other hand implementing later another 301 again may also not be optimum and it would save time to do it all at the same time. Shall I do the removal of the file extension at the same time of the domain migration or rather schedule it for 3 months later?

I would do it all in once.

3. On the same topic, would the domain migration be a good occasion to move to https instead of http at the same time, or also should we rather do this at a different time?

I would do it at the same time but make sure you have all variations of the URL http and https and www and non-www verified in GWT so you can point GWT the best one.

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Keep in mind this is a complex situation with lots of moving parts, so there are no "right" answers.

That said, you're dealing with a lot of potential redirects:

• Site migration
• HTTPS
• .php extension rewriting

On one hand, I'm concerned if you stagger these out, you'll be diluting your authority through several 301 redirects.
In this case, might be best to do it all at once.

On the other hand, doing it all at once greatly increases the chance of something going wrong. In this case, best to stagger things out.

At Moz, we went with "do it all at once" when we migrated to moz.com. Needless to say, we didn't do everything perfect and our organic traffic dropped nearly 30%, instead of the 15% we would have normally expected from a smaller migration.

Regardless, I'd still preference the "all at once" approach, and just be very diligent with your redirects, making sure not to drop pages, rewrite content, change title tags, etc.

As for moving big assets over ahead of time, I know some people endorse it, but I haven't seen a ton of evidence that it makes a significant difference. If it complicates things, I'd likely avoid it.

Hope this helps! Best of luck with your SEO.

[lcourse]

Cyrus, thanks a lot for the advice.

In the long-run, what do you think is the percentage of organic traffic you lost at moz.com due to the domain migration? 30% was just short-term effect, right?

Regarding moving assets upfront, it would be quite easy to do in our case.
But would you be concerned about giving google wrong signals about topic of domain which may make it more difficult later to rank our core content well?

[Cyrus-Shepard]

It took us 6-8 months to bounce back.

Yes, I'm actually worried about sending confusing signals to Google about where the content is suppose to live.

I don't like making Google think

[lcourse]

uuhh thats a long time for bouncing back.

I would use a 301 redirect to assets from old to new domain. This should give clear signal to google to where content lives, or do I oversee anything here?
My key concern really is that google may get signals that new domain is about topic of asset I am moving first and then when I migrate later my core content, it may be more difficult to rank for core content since google associates the new domain with the topical focus of content that was moved first. Is this something you would be concerned about?

[lcourse]

Marcus, Arnout, Cyrus, excellent comments. Thanks a lot.