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Cloughie
04-19-2006, 12:04 AM
Hi everyone,

I am currently running www.wannabebig.com and www.wannabebigforums.com

I am looking to entirely redesign the site. New front and backend CMS and new domain. I have strong reasons to change the domain name, my question is whats the best way to go about it.

Admittedly I have never really focused too hard on SEO, more on the content, but there are quite a few links to the main site and forums and I figure from a PR point of view, am I starting again?

Is there anything I can do to help the crossover and avoid a severe drop in Search engin ranking?

Anyone else changed their domain before and how did they manage it?

Chris
04-19-2006, 04:52 AM
I would seriously not change the domain, you've had those for years, the downside is going to be enormous.

You can setup redirects, but no redirect is ever going to be as good as keep the actual domains.

The last time I changed a domain was like in 2000 or 2001 and I had around a 50% drop in traffic.

cameron
04-19-2006, 10:31 AM
I switched from http://www.alteredskate.com to http://www.hdskate.com . That was in 2002. Hdskate is doing much better than Alteredskate ever did, but it's a much better site, and the gains weren't instant. I can't remember if I experienced a temporary traffic drop or not.

Alteredskate still gets traffic and has fastclick ads on it. I didn't use redirects, I just have links to Hdskate.

So anyway, I just went for it and it turned out alright. Google and other search engines work a lot differently now though. It might be difficult to get your rankings to crossover. My main advice would be to leave the current sites up so that they still get your current search engine traffic.

Cloughie
04-21-2006, 03:31 AM
hmm, that sucks.

I really feel strongly about changing the name, its really not that suitable and something different would fit in much more with my longer term vision for the site.

arrghh, any suggestions at all?

Chris
04-21-2006, 05:55 AM
No sorry, I would never do this with a site that is 5-6 years old.

Masetek
04-21-2006, 06:00 AM
Cloughie, your brand is really well known. I heard about it long before I even thought about making my first fitness site. Most of the guys I know at my gym are even regulars. There's no way I would change it if I were you. I actually really like your domain name.

My 2c :)

Cloughie
04-21-2006, 06:51 AM
ok, not going to do it then...

masetek, you have a messenger handle? Be good to catch upm looks like we have some common ground!

moonshield
04-21-2006, 08:57 AM
Start a new site on your new domain and network the two.

etech-martin
04-22-2006, 04:38 AM
Well even I would suggest you not to change your domain which is a few years old as by now it would have become your brand name. Also the ranking and the PR are bound to get affected.

Cloughie
04-30-2006, 08:52 AM
I´ve sort of gone off the idea.

I am still playing with some ideas, including perhaps a second spin of site, but honestly, it just seems that sticking with my current name would appear the best move.

I want to totally transofrm the site. New design, new CMS, new content and I wanted a new domain too, because I think the site could be better named to appeal to a wider audience and increase word of mouth.

Lets face it, not many people are going to go "Hey, go to Wannabebig, its an awesome site" It just sounds a bit silly. I am worried that in itself is currently losing me a lot of referrals, I wonder how that stands up to the loss of traffic I might expect from changing a domain?

The only other real option is to create an entirely new site, new domain and run it along side. However it would seem a little bit pointless and much of the content would indeed be duplicated which would not make sense.

paul
04-30-2006, 02:54 PM
I think the owner of a site gets tired of it long before visitors do.

We asked a florist friend to just "make a nice arrangement" once when we needed flowers. She was really proud of this truly ugly arrrangement she delivered. We realized later she was bored to death with all the standard arrangements.