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Thanks!

I think it would be fine to use the change of address is Google Webmaster Tools.  You are simply saying that this content now resides over here and this GWT account should now monitor the new domain over the old one.  The effects of this tool are temporary - it helps your new domain replace the old one in the serps, with the old domain's rankings, while Google crawls the new domain a few times.  I think it is like six months or something.  This does not make the old domain useless - just useless with the old content.

If I am wrong I will be corrected.  This community is awesome.

As always EGOL's response consists of words to live by - his white hat, good content approach wont only get you where you want to be, it will keep you there no matter what updates Google launches (unless they just go insane).

The only thing I would add is to really look at your website's usability compared to theirs.  How is your page load speed compared to theirs?  Is their website far easier to navigate?  Do you meet ada compliance?  If not, do they?

These things seem to be more and more important.

When you checked it in the way back machine did you see any on page issues on the old website that make you scared?

Can you run it through open site explorer or AHREFS to see what websites might still be linking to it?

Is there any content associated with the domain now?

Wow - this is a big job.

However, done correctly I see no reason for any penalties.  Obviously don't do a domain level redirect (duh) and the only issue I can see is if you accidentally reused one of the redirected page names... but then you could just remove that single 301.

Just be careful, triple check everything before launch and I think you will be just fine.

I am not disagreeing with EGOL - I know when someone has more experience than me

However... I can't help but remember when links from Press Releases, according to Matt Cutts, were useless... then it was proven that they certainly did count.  Or when exact match domains weren't supposed to help... but they still did...

Sometimes I think that Mr. Cutts will say these things knowing that many webmasters will believe him and stop doing what Google wants them to stop doing.  Then later they may make some algorithmic changes...

This is clearly speculation on my part.  It just seems this way sometimes.

That is a good idea for improvement.  Go here and suggest it!

https://seomoz.zendesk.com/forums/293194-Moz-Feature-Requests

I totally agree with Andy here.  PageRank is not the only metric - not by a long shot.  Any association can be negative or positive whether PageRank is passing or not.  I would disavow just to get out of the bad neighborhood.

Using alternate hreflang tags may help...

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en

I realize that they are both in English but if one is proper English while the other is American English this could be helpful...

I think the best you can hope for is that some of the juice is passing.  I'd strongly recommend taking Andy's advice and try to the links changed (I've followed him here for a while - he knows his stuff)

So this pop up - does it automatically populate the new URL when someone visits the page?  So if someone is going to link to you and they go to copy your URL from their browser is it always with /#example because when they visit the page the pop up is there?

I could see that as potentially being an issue if that is the case.

I wouldn't bother with design element only images; borders, backgrounds etc... only actual images of something you can describe.  I would also stay very far away from just adding keywords to the alt attribute.  If the images are relevant to the page's focus just describing the image accurately will help a great deal.

We see this exact 'issue' with hotels all of the time.  Start with 'near' terms: 'near Orlando' or 'greater Orlando area' you will get those faster - they will drive some traffic and you will increase your relevance for broader 'orlando' terms.  Do not do this to the detriment of your 'Winter Garden' terms.  I think "Winter Garden Law Firms near Orlando" or similar would be a good start.

Good luck

copyscape.com  You will have to do each page individually but it works well.

I would check Google Trends for a possible drop in search volume for your targeted terms.  I am not sure how long you have had this site up and running but you may just have hit a seasonality drop (we see this with hotels) and you may simply need to wait it out.  You may consider deepening your 'bucket' of phrases if there are relevant terms for which you are not targeting that may still be receiving some decent search volume.

Because you have not dropped in ranking for the specific term I am confident in saying this has nothing to do with your exact match domain - any penalty would have been to your rankings which would have effected traffic but Google can not cut out the middle man - they can't keep you where you are in the rankings but still control your traffic amount.

Hmmmm - that makes me wonder - have you narrowed the traffic loss down to search engines?  Were you perhaps running some other type of marketing that may have been driving direct or referral traffic that you have stopped?

Although I am certainly not saying that your proposed method is 'wrong' in the slightest... I would be more inclined to take advantage of the year's worth of authority on your old domain.

Surfboards and Paddle boards are certainly similar enough - it isn't like you are branching out in to game systems or lawn mowers.

I would create a paddle board section on the current website and optimize that section for the paddle board terms.

That is just me, though.  I see no issue with your proposed method except for having a new domain with no links and no time under its belt.

Cheers.

Is there any correlation with ranking drop for the exact match keyword (or any other keywords for that matter)?  I know that exact match domains may not get the boost they used to but I certainly don't recall seeing any penalties.

I agree that keyword rankings just aren't all that important in the scheme of things.  However - if that is what they care about at least that part of your job will be very easy.  They will rank - of this there is no doubt.

You are more than welcome for the suggestions - I hope it works out for you (and your client).

Cheers

There is an old webmaster world thread that explains how to hide the robots.txt file from browsers.... not sure why one would do this however....

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum93/74.htm

Perhaps they are doing something like this?

You might consider going a bit more broad with terms like "franchise opportunities" etc.... I believe that your more long tail terms are going to be so niche that although they will drive more relevant traffic, they aren't going to drive much of it at all but pairing these with more broad (yet still relevant terms) should at least get the ball rolling.

Something like this is probably going to do better with more direct advertising as well - ads on pet specific websites, veterinarian websites and maybe some start up type or entrepreneur blogs...

These super niche sites can be far more difficult to drive relevant traffic to than websites in super competitive markets but you can do it.  It will take some out-of-the-box thinking

For the local sites I would concentrate more on 'kennel' terms than 'day care' terms but again - ads on local vet websites etc... would be your best bet - even partnering with local hotels that don't allow pets and get them to advertise the kennel on their hotel websites would probably be a great idea.

Good luck.

1. I wish I could accurately place this on a scale for you.  In my opinion I would consider this to be white hat.  You have no intent of manipulating search results here - this is completely a usability issue and this is the obvious fix.

2. Yes, I certainly would

3. yes, I certainly would