Hi All,

We have a corporate client who we have been looking after their website going back several years and the site has seen steady growth in their online traffic in that time.

They curently have a number of domains pointing to the site, a .ie a co.uk and a few others.

They have purchased a .eu and are considering dropping all their existing domains and just using the one going forward in offline promotions as it might be the best option from a branding point of view.

My question is would there be an big impact to the traffic and rankings they have for their exsiting domains?

Any comments or if anyone knows of simlar cases I 'd appreciate it.

Cormac

Absolutely. Well maybe.

If they ensure that all those old domains are properly redirected to the new domain then you shouldn't have too many problems. If the old domains are keyword rich then the new domain might not rank so well. Quite a few variables involved here TBH.

Just remember to keep control of all the old domains (don't let them lapse).

AFA offline promotion, one domain can make sense in that it concentrates the brand equity, but this really depends on the particular circumstances.

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Search Engine Optimisation - Red Cardinal Internet Marketing
Internet Consultant Ireland | Search Engine Optimisation Services
Catering Company Dublin - My sister's handmade canape company!

I have three domains that go to the one site at the moment

originally the site was called archeire.com
then i decided to buy irish-architecture.com as it was more obvious for driveby browsing.. and finally archiseek.com which was intended for international content, but i've rebranded the entire site as archiseek.com, but have kept the old domains, - i just no longer promote them...

too much legacy - old links etc, so they're valuable to me, so i will continue to pay for them.....

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Irish Architecture

Irish Architecture Jobs

As long as you do a 301 redirect from all domains to the new domain you should be fine. It will take about 5-8 days to kick in (Assuming we're talking Google here).

We have redirected many domains using this method without problems with ranking loss.

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Web Design | Search Engine Marketing | Pay Per Click Management

I agree with the folks above, a 301 generally should do the trick. However this will, well should reallocate the link PR to the new domain but like Redcardinal said above in terms of like for like comparion of the domain name itself, if the old established one had keywords in it then you could be likely to lose a few positions if / when switching to something keyword free mainly for the purposes of ease of branding.

Do keep your old domain though, anyones that have links at least.

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MY BLOG | MY FORUMS | Search Engine Optimisation

In theory I agree with the above, however just as recently as last year I had tried this technique with a client who wished to change over everything to a .ie domain name.

It was absolutely disastrous. It basically went into a mode that can only be compared to the sandbox. For up to 10 months, it came and went on Google, some weeks it would be perfect and I thought we were there, only for the next day dropping off the rankings completely.

After this experience, I would take this approach with great care and make it clear to the client the possibilities of what could potentially happen.

In other cases before I never had the problem and the 301 redirect seemed to work a treat, but this was the last case I did it on and as I said.... I'd be very wary of doing it again!

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Web Design Ireland | My Blog | Online Marketing Ireland

Hi Tom, didn't know there was anyone here from 2bscene, great. I notice you's have redesigned your site, I like I must admit.

Back on topic though yes I have heard horror stories with 301s, and I do class it as a big risk and one which the client should be aware off, but its the best we have at the moment for transfering links, PR etc to a new domain.

Been here from day 1 (i think), just never got a chance to come regularly. Hopefully I can change that!

Thanks for the nice comments! It was well overdue.... i've been looking at it so long now I'm ready for a new design!!

Anyway, yes I agree, it's the best option available!