EGOL looking for expert opinion

A short but important question.

I have a site that ranks well but I don't like the domain name. It has a hyphen in it and I have bought a much better name without the hypen.

This new domain has not been used for a website before. What is my risk of falling into the sandbox if I try to move the biz to the new domain?

Does anyone have experience in moving a biz like this? How is it best done and what are the risks of getting sandboxed?

Thanks to all for your help.

The best way is get the new site all set, then do a permanant redirect.

The sandbox thing is iffy. I would think G would be ok with it as businesses regularly buy each other out, merge, etc.

But when randfish moves seomoz from a subdomain to a its own domain, he got boxed.

No direct experience, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. But I would place a hefty bet that you'd get sandboxed.

It's so easy to give advice like 'just 301 it' when the site isn't yours, but it's a much different story when it's actually 'go time'.

I personally tried the 301 deal on a very established domain moving to a new domain and it got thrown back into the box. There was however a redesign issue (which may have caused the problem), but nonetheless the new domain is sandboxed and receives little traffic. It's been that way for a 3+ months now, with no sign of hope.

So..... the million dollar question is 'change it or leave it?' I guess that depends on how much search engine traffic the site gets. If it's a substantial amount then I would say leave it. On the flip side, if most of the traffic comes from bookmarks or direct links from other sites then go ahead and change it. The new name should be easier for the user to remember, and even if you do get sandboxed you'll still receive a grip of traffic.

I always been a fan of the phrase 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' ... having said that my vote is for 'leave it' and create a supplemental addition to your site with the other domain. (possibly with the same navigation and design as the other site - the visitor might not even know they left)

Tell you what...

I've got a site that needs to change domains and I've been putting it off.

I'll do the switch this week and let you know what happens.

EGOL,

You say the new domain wasn't used before, but has it been in SERPs?

If it was in SERP's, for example with a 'this domain is for sale' notice, I'd guess that it would be less likely to be boxed.

I also think you should consider setting up a redirect from the new domain to the old domain, provided that the new domain has a SERP's history. If the new domain had good ranking for its name, it's likely to retain it.

A case that I know of: A domain (call it 'example.com') was for sale for a long time. It was #1 in Google for the term 'example' with a 'This domain for sale' message on it. A company called 'example mall' bought it about a year ago, and re-directed it to ExampleMall.com. It's still #1 for 'example' in G.

(It's not something I was involved in, but I had considered making an offer for 'example.com' myself, so I kept an eye on how it progressed.)

Thanks for these replies... I've added a poll so if you are in here for the second time please feel free to vote.

This domain has never been in the SERPs.

EGOL:

Is the existing hyphenated url germane to the site and anchor text? If so be CAREFUL, especially if the site makes you $.

A. If it aint broke - don't fix it.

B. Just looked at this tool, mentioned by DD at seo-scoop www.webuildpages.com/neat-o/ which describes anchor text.

For my site, with anchor text that is kywrd1-kywrd2 as the url and also as the most relevant, competitive phrase- the tool identifies 57% of the anchor text as kywrd1 keywrd2.

Can't beat that. It drives the hell out of my allinanchor which helps w/serps.

Most of the anchor text comes from either my title or the url. Even w/ all the link building I've done...most of the bls are from spam sites. Even if the sites have little value it certainly adds up.

Be careful!!! BTW, according to this tool I have a bl w/ anchor text as follows; benzer sayfalar. If that is your site...we will be going to court shortly!!!!! LOL (Despite this powerful boost for anchor text couldn't find my site in the top 100 for the phrase in G!)

Dave

Didn't Rand do this exact thing with SEOMoz? And isn't he still in the box?

We've got a few sub-domains that we're wanting to move to their own domain. At present, we've had them as sub-domains for about six months (long enough to appear #1 for their search terms and gain PR). We're planning to bust them out to their own domain soon, so I'll be interested in any tests rmc or anyone else does soon LOL

S

Yep. I did this with a non-sandboxed socengine.com/seo and moved the content to the new seomoz.org domain - still boxed 6 months later, despite links to the site from Matt Cutts' blog!

I bet $100 you'll be boxed as a whole month's pay is just too much to risk

Thanks for all of this good input with first hand examples to back it up. I am not liking it that everyone is betting against this working but its better to find out now than to find out later. Phooey.

Sounds like Rand would have bet more than $100. lol

Most of my traffic on this site is straight from google so I don't want to cut that off for an indefinite time.

Does anyone have any successful reports of doing this? Can anybody else report it sending them to the sandbox?

If memory serves, most of Rand's stuff was all new -- meaning not much to 301 from the old to the new. In our case, we'll be moving about 150 pages of unique content from one domain to another and all will be done through 301. I was hoping that by allowing the page to build up SERPs and PR on the existing domain that moving it to a domain of its own wouldn't be as painful.

The plan is to make the move sometime later this month with one of the domains. I'll post followups on how it goes.

S