Possible to Change Domain Name without Negative Rankings

[Kingalan1]

Is it possible to migrate to a new domain name without negatively impacting SEO?

Our existing domain name (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com) is a bit spammy. It has been used for almost 10 years. We would like to migrate it to www.metro-manhattan.com. The metro-manhattan domain has been registered about 5 years and it redirects to the nyc-officespace-leader.com domain.

The nyc-officespace-leader.com has a domain authority of 23 and a page authority of 32. The metro-manhattan domain has a domain authority of 7 and a page authority of 23.

Is it possible to make this transition without losing domain authority and page rank? I would think that having two domains might loo spammy to Google and this change would be a positive in the long term. We do understand that the redirects for each page would need to be done carefully.

Thanks, Alan

[MonicaOConnor]

No, that is not realistic. You will implement 301 redirects which will help you keep some traffic and link juice, but your DA and PA will not be transferred seamlessly. You will have to build the DA and PA of your metro-manhattan.com site the organic way with quality links and great content.

The 301 redirects might cause a boost in DA, but it will not be equal to what you have now.

[EGOL]

I changed domains a while ago and dropped badly in the rankings.  The original domain was popular and getting a lot of type-in traffic and domain query traffic - many thousands of these per month.  I believe that these were supporting it in the rankings.

When the new domain went up it was suddenly getting zero domain queries and type-in visitors.  But over six or so months those strengthened and now it is back at the top of the SERPs, holding positions 1 and 2 with over 10,000 domain queries per month.

Just an opinion, I would not change my domain to metro-manhattan.com.   I would go buy metromanhattan.com.   If your domain has any popularity at all then a lot of people are typing in that domain name.

[MonicaOConnor]

That is a really good point. The - in a domain name is usually not a good thing.

Just to be clear, I wasn't saying it isn't impossible to regain rankings over time. It just won't happen instantaneously. It is possible over time to actually grow more and be better than the old domain, but that will take work.

[Kingalan1]

Thanks for your response. I understand that DA and PA will not be transferred seamlessly. However the existing  domain authority is 23 and a page authority is 32. Considering these numbers are relatively low, does it make it easier to recover them if I redirect the site to a new domain?

Note the existing domain has been around for several years and has a  domain authority of 7 and a page authority of 23.

Thanks, Alan

[MonicaOConnor]

DA is mainly influenced by link activity. I don't think that it would be any easier to build DA and PA on your metro-manhattan domain as it would any other domain. It will take time to build links effectively and organically. I also agree with EGOL. I believe you should look into metromanhattan.com instead of having a hyphenated domain.

[Kingalan1]

Considering the existing domain authority is only 23 do you think that that building new links for the metro-manhattan domain could be accomplished without a huge effort?

There are less than 100 domains linking to the existing URL.

Thanks, Alan

[MonicaOConnor]

I guess it depends on what kind of links you want to build. You can buy thousands of links all at once but that will only hurt you in the long run. The rule I follow is to stay within 10-15% of your existing links. That is just a metric I use to help explain to clients what "natural" link building should really look like.

You will be passing some link juice to your new domain, but it isn't a fluid transfer, meaning you will not reach the DA of 23 simply by redirecting the old domain. You will get a higher domain authority by building reputable, quality links. I wouldn't do anymore than 20 a month, since there are only 100 links to the metro-manhattan.com domain.

[LinkWheelOldSchool]

Do a full 301 redirect and don't worry so much about DA/PA - they are not google metrics and the numbers themselves don't influence google rankings. But just as Monica said, you will see a drop in rankings but they should be back up in 2 weeks or so.

[Kingalan1]

Considering that traffic for this site is about 4,000 visitors per month and the domain authority is 23 and a page authority is only 32 would that make it easier and faster to recover traffic and ranking?

The site currently has about 400 pages, what if I prepare re-writes on about 100 pages of text before the domain change and then gradually add this content after the switch. Would that speed recovery?

I intend to re-write the content anyway but perhaps to do so after the new domain gets launched.

On the other hand I may keep the domain as is if this switching is too much trouble. However the URL does not match my company name and I am concerned this discordance could be harming the site long term.