Root domain change - how do we best handle existing backlinks from our own content platforms on youtube, etc?

[WP33]

Hi, we have recently changed our brand name after 7 years and have changed our root domain to match (33shake.com since 2012, now 33 fuel.com)

The site is the same (no migration to a new one) as there were no other business changes apart from the name/domain.

301 redirects are looking after all former 33shake.com links, which are now being redirected to their new 33fuel.com equivalents (slugs are the same in 99% of cases).

My question is:

We have a lot of backlinks for our old domain (33shake.com) on our own content via our YouTube channel (100+ videos) and also our podcast (64 episodes in, broadcast on 10 platforms).

For maximum SEO benefit as we continue to restore domain authority, etc to 33fuel.com, are we best to leave these historical backlinks pointed at the old domain and let the redirects pick them up when people click? Or are we better off swapping all of these old historical backlinks so they point directly to the new domain?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, this is quite a maze we are now picking our way through!

Warren

[effectdigital]

You're better off amending the links if at all possible. 301 redirects are great, but they can break down for many reasons. One reason a 301 can be refused equity flow, is if the old content is too 'dissimilar' to the new content (think Boolean string similarity, not 'what humans think'). If the old content and new content are 60% similar, don't expect 100% of the authority to go through. If the old and new content are only 20% similar, barely any SEO authority (if any) will translate across

This is to combat SEO-authority sculpting through redirects. If webmasters decided they voluntarily, editorially wanted to link to one old page, but the new page is barely similar to that old resource - are the old hyperlinks still 'valid' in terms of contributing SEO authority? In many cases, no they are not (the webmasters or editors, may not have chosen to link to the new content - even though they did link to the old content). Past a certain point, content has to re-prove itself

Amending the hyperlinks circumvents that judgement, though links do also decay over time. In general, I have found link amends to be superior to 301 redirects, 90% of the time

[WP33]

Thanks so much for the clear and helpful response. Amending the links is easy enough for us to do, we'll get to it.