Google isn't recognizing links to my site. help

[milesnixon]

I recently changed my domain name and i see on moz that NOTHING is linking to my current domain (even though I have changed all of my links to go to my current domain name). My domain authority remains higher with my old domain name. I do have my old domain linking to my current site. Should I worry about this? How can i get google to recognize the link changes?

[Nigel_Carr]

Hi Miles

Did you 301 each page across to the corresponding page on your new site or just all to teh homepage? It's hard to tell you much without seeing the URL but if you set up the new site correctly and set the 301s up correctly the new site should inherit most of the old site link juice.

I'm assuming you don't have the old site still live by the way?

Regards Nigel

[milesnixon]

My site is www.sellingyouparadise.com and it was www.gofortmyersbeach.com . I did keep the old domain so that if anyone was using it, they could still link to it. Should i get rid of it?

[Nigel_Carr]

Hi Miles,

Yes - you need to completely remove it as you will kill the new site and the old site stone dead. they will both share the same content! Just write in the htaccess of the old site all of the 301 redirects and take the site down. Then if anyone visits it they will automatically go to the corresponding pages on the new website.

It's way easier than this page suggests: https://moz.com/learn/seo/redirection More:  https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93633?hl=en

If anyone is linking to the old domain they will come to the new one via the 301 redirect.

Just don't redirect every old page to the home page of your new site. Do it page by page. You will then start to see the backlinks appearing and the DA going up.

I hope that helps

Nigel

[Vijay-Gaur]

Hi Miles,

In addition to what Nigel has already explained, I checked your website redirects for your website www.gofortmyersbeach.com using the tool at http://www.redirect-checker.org . The homepage seems to be properly redirected to the new website and I hope you have redirected each URL to the mapping page on the new website.

You have to keep your old Domain properly redirected till google understands that the existing authority needs to be passed to the new domain. I hope this answers your question, please feel free to ask further queries.

Best Regards,

Vijay

[Seenlyst]

Hello there,

You should be setting up a 301 redirect from your old domain to your new domain, and as Nigel said, make sure to 301 the corresponding page from the previous site to the new site.

site1.com/content-A  --> site2.com/content-A

Here's a detailed guide on how you can set up the redirect record in your DNS:

https://woorkup.com/301-redirect-domain-registrar/

Once you did that you can check with https://tools.keycdn.com/curl

You should be able to see if your 301 redirects work properly. (From what I just tested with your domain www.gofortmyersbeach.com it says 302 but not 301)

** Also, make sure you inform Google by using the Google Search Console > Change of Address**

(https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/83106?hl=en)

Hope this helps.

[milesnixon]

Thank you for taking the time to look into this.

[Nigel_Carr]

Hi Miles - please could you sprinkle some thumbs up around if your questions were answered? Better still mark any as Good answers

Thanks Nigel

[Nigel_Carr]

You are a gent!