Domain Name Change-Negative Ranking Effect?

[Kingalan1]

I am considering redirecting my domain name from www.nyc-officespace-leader.com to www.metro-manhattan.com. My company name is Metro Manhattan Office Space, Inc. so the new domain will be more consistent our identity. The Metro domain was registered with GoDaddy five years ago but has only been used for email and for forwarding (entering www.metro-manhattan.com will forward visitor to www.nyc-officespace-leader.com).

What is the likely hood that redirecting to the Metro-manhattan.com domain will result in a drop in traffic and ranking? I asked this question a year ago and the results were mixed. But one year is an eternity for Google. I am hoping that re-directs work better now and that if this is implemented correctly there will be no ranking/traffic/domain authority loss.

Thoughts??

Thanks, Alan

[Mustansar]

Hi, Frankly there are few things to be consider while you thinking to change your domain. We did the same for one of our client but result for them was perfectly fine.
Our client, domainn was (www.webuycarstoday.com) this site was poorly developed and has very low due to Google penalty we change to (www.webuycarstoday.co.uk) as you can see we did not change brand name but the TLD. After changing its TLD, we secure top page positions for all main keywords and since than its getting good customers attention.

Now, In my opinion if you moved your site permanently by using 301 redirect, it will not have major impact however, if you planning to rebrand yourselves with new business name there might be risk of fall in traffic as a result. I think, you may use the similar kind of site but with different TLD that will work.

[Kingalan1]

Thanks, that is a very informative response!!

In our case we will change the top level domain. However the company is called Metro Manhattan Office Space, Inc. and we are changing the domain to www.metro-manhattan.com, really much closer than the current domain of www.nyc-officespace-leader.com. Furthermore the Metro-Manhattan domain was registered about 5 years ago with Godaddy.

If the 301 redirects are done properly, do you think we can more or less retain ranking, traffic and domain authority? Or do you think we are going to take a hit?

Also, is the www.metro-manhattan.com domain OK? It does have a hyphen.

Thanks so much!!

Alan

[Mustansar]

Well, in my views yes you will get benefit out of this change. I would suggest you to run a backlink audit of your old site and make disallow list of all toxic links. Disallow all those and put a 301 redirect as soon as you can.

Another tip, when you do it, try to change your onsite content. This will add up another plus point for your site.

I checked your site, its look amzing i think you will not only retain but will get good result. Moreover, you second domain has more branded power than the current one along with age of the domain.

So Good luck with your change.