301 Redirect - Rank Recovery Examples?

[MikeBlue1]

Hi All,

I recently did a 301 redirect. Page to Page and the notified google via its console. Its been 6 days since. The home page and one other high traffic page swopped out with the new domain on google search index with 3-4 drops in ranking for each. The rest of the sites pages have been indexed but still reflect the old domain when searched. Recently today my home page dropped even further to the second page of google index for the specific keyword.

Can you share similar experiences and how long it took you to recover rank fully? and how long for all pages to swop out on google search's index?

Regards

Mike

[JohnSammon]

Hey! Can you provide a bit more detail and even share the URL of the site? It sounds like you launched a new site at a different URL and 301 redirected everything (page to page). You'll typically see a drop in traffic/rank for 30 days - how dramatic of a dip will vary from site to site. A few things to review:

1. 404 errors in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools

2. Going through each of the 301 redirects to make sure they work (tedious but necessary)

3. Submit sitemap from new URL

If you can provide any more details on things you've reviewed that will be helpful. I'll keep an eye on this thread.

[MikeBlue1]

Hi John,

Thanks for responding. Thats correct, ''new site at a different URL and 301 redirected everything (page to page).''.

Everything has stayed exactly the same with the new site including the 'sub-directory' (think thats what u call it) part of the url.

e.g. www.olddmain.com/page1  redirected www.newdomain.com/page1

404 errors: The site is made with wix and basically I can only page to page all the main urls as the example above. What I have noted is that sometimes photos get automatically indexed with long tailed urls. These cannot be 301'd and have caused some 404's here and there. I do not need these photos 301'd...Will these 404's impact as leaked link power?

Other than that as mentioned the home page and another main page have 'swopped' out with the old domain but are jumping up and down in the search results... Noted regarding 30 days, seems its a waiting game. Just hope that this rank loss/instability is not permanent.

Regards

Mike

[JohnSammon]

Hey Mike,

It sounds like you've done all the right things. If you are seeing 404's for elements or pages that you don't believe have value, then you can request them be removed from the Google index via the search console. You may want to do that. You are welcome to paste them in here for me to see just in case.

It's more or less a waiting game now. The good news is that you've done all the right things.  If you have time, I would start building links or social shares (anything natrual and not fabricated) to the new site to help with SEO while the redirects fully kick in.

Thanks!

[MikeBlue1]

Thanks John, sound like I'm on the right track. Will paste links if have any unresolved issues need checking but for now think I am ok.

Will have to wait it out and get stuck into link building as suggested.

[MikeBlue1]

Hi John,

One last question.

All going well the rank stabilises within 30 days. When would it be safe to start publishing new website content? As it seems one shouldn't have anything different from the old domain/url to the new in order to have rank pass through effectively in terms of new vs old site structure/ sitepmap etc...

Regards,

Mike

[JohnSammon]

Hey Mike,

I would publish content right away on the new site. You can also share in social to help get more inbound links and shares to the new site.

Thanks!

John