Domain Change for a well positioned website... I'm a-scared

[Enrico_Cassinelli]

Hello,

A few years ago I have "inherited" a website about a particular touristic area in Italy (the Langhe region) called langhe.net.

The website is very well positioned, the domain has been registered in '97 and the overall SEO performance is pretty good (it ranks in the top #3 positions for all the main search queries in our niche).

We are currently redesigning the whole thing, and one of the idea was to change the domain (and the name) of the website from langhe.net to lovelanghe.com (which we already registered).

The reasons behind this decision are the following (most important first):

1. Google prefer brands over keywords and "Langhe" is just a keyword
2. LoveLanghe looks more memorable and "marketable" than just Langhe.net
3. All our social presence is branded already as LoveLanghe (they were created years back under this name - I don't know why)

We will do our due diligence work (301 everything, domain change in Search Console etc. etc.) but I'm still kind of worried that we will lose some ranking.

So my question(s) are:

1. do you think it's a good idea to change the domain when ranking is good and original domain is so old?
2. how much ranking (approximately) are we going to lose?

Thanks in advance

Best

[Roman-Delcarmen]

Moving domains can make a tremendously negative impact on search engine rankings. This is because the major search engines use metrics on both the domain level and the page level to determine rankings.

This is the mini-guide from MOZ to Properly Move Domains

1 Redirect all of the pages from one domain to an entirely different domain.
2 www.example-old-site.com/ and all of it's pages redirect to www.example-new-site.com/ and it's corresponding pages.
3 Create a sitemap for your old domain.
4 Set up the new domain and make it live.
5 Register and verify your old domain and new domain with Google Webmaster Tools.
6 Create a custom 404 page for old domain which suggests visiting new domain.
7 In a development environment, test the redirects from the old domain to the new domain. Ideally, this will be a 1:1 redirect.
8 301 redirect your old domain to your new domain.
9 Submit your old sitemap to Google and Bing. The submission pages are within Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Center
10 Fill out the Change of Address form in Google Webmaster Tools.
11 Create a new sitemap and submit it to the engines.
12 Wait until Google Webmaster Tools updates and fix any errors it indicates in the Diagnostics section.
13 Monitor search engine results to make sure new domain is being properly indexed.

[Enrico_Cassinelli]

Hi Roman, thank you for your answer!

yeah, the plan is to follow that checklist

My doubts are more tied to the question if the ranking loss due to the domain switch outweights the advantages of having moving to a more "brandable" domain.

[Roman-Delcarmen]

Sometimes it's necessary to move your site to a new domain. Often it comes down to maintaining consistent branding; for instance, changing your domain to match your company's new name.

While transferring your site to a new domain isn't something you should do on a whim, it is possible to do it without suffering permanent damage to your search rankings.

Be aware that you are likely to experience a short-term drop in rankings immediately following your move.

So If you did your homework probably you will notice some changes
in the beginning but at the end your rank will come back.

ANWERSING YOUR QUESTION
Yes, It is possible to change your domain without losing your SEO Juice.

[Roman-Delcarmen]

One more thing ....you are looking for a more brandable domain
if you get success on the migration process and you can improve your CRO. A better CRO means better user experience and lower bounce rate. that's a higher ranking and better page authority.
you will have a better ranking than the original.

My swissknife for that are

• Optimizely
• Crazyegg or Hotjar

If your create a plan for improve a convertion rate (Im not talking about a simple a/b tets) Im talking about a serius plan

1- Build an optimization strategy for your company

2- Align your program’s testing efforts to your company goals.

3- Create a goal tree. This is a map of the metrics that are critical to your company’s success. The discovery process for creating a goal tree helps you translate business metrics into concrete optimization goals.

4- I recommend that you start by focusing your testing program on achieving quick wins with impactful tests that affect the bottom line.

Each goal breaks down into a set of smaller goals. For example, "Revenue" in the tree above cascades into "Revenue per Visitor" and "Number of Visitors." Top-level metrics roll directly into smaller KPIs that you'll optimize for.

A goal tree helps you:

decide where to focus your optimization efforts

break down broad organizational imperatives into bite-sized tests

find multiple avenues to generate impact through optimization

optimize for smaller KPIs and understand how these impact your business goals

help stakeholders grasp the value of your optimization efforts in a language they understand

[Enrico_Cassinelli]

Hi Roman,

thank you for you exhaustive answer

Best