Partial Site Move -- Tell Google Entire Site Moved?

[badgerdigital]

OK this one's a little confusing, please try to follow along.

We recently went through a rebranding where we brought a new domain online for one of our brands (we'll call this domain 'B' -- it's also not the site linked to in my profile, not to confuse things).  This brand accounted for 90% of the pages and 90% of the e-comm on the existing domain (we'll call the existing domain 'A') .  'A' was also redesigned and it's URL structure has changed.  We have 301s in place on A that redirect to B for those 90% of pages and we also have internal 301s on A for the remaining 10% of pages whose URL has changed as a result of the A redesign

What I'm wondering is if I should tell Google through webmaster tools that 'A' is now 'B' through the 'Change of Address' form. If I do this, will the existing products that remain on A suffer?  I suppose I could just 301 the 10% of URLs on B back to A but I'm wondering if Google would see that as a loop since I just got done telling it that A is now B.

I realize there probably isn't a perfect answer here but I'm looking for the "least worst" solution.  I also realize that it's not optimal that we moved 90% of the pages from A to B, but it's the situation we're in.

[Anthony_Trollope]

I can't see how using the 'change of address' form is going to help you in this case. The fact of the matter is you are not changing address, only moving a portion of the website to another domain name. Google being Google will not want you to use this form for this purpose but instead follow 301 protocol for moving it across.

On the contrary, I would be more concerned about using the 'change of address' form given that you're basically saying to Google, the site has moved, but then when they go check it, some of the site is still there. Surely they are then just going to flag it and perhaps penalise you in the shorter term.

In short, I can't see how you can benefit from using the form. I would just follow 301 protocol and use your time to build links to the new content/domain.

[badgerdigital]

Hey Anthony -- thanks for your answer.  What you've described as a solution is basically what I've already done (short of using the COA form).  Our traffic has dropped off pretty significant hopefully it won't be too long before the redirects start to kick in.

[Anthony_Trollope]

Short term loses are to be expected unless you are a serious player. It could take several weeks, perhaps a month or two to recover fully but it should do in time. As ever, I would now concentrate on building new links & updating any matured links to the moved content and the 301's will take care of themselves. All the best, Anthony