Domain Switch SEO

[gameaddict2085]

Hi all,
Without doing any research I changed my domain from thefreegamesdb.com to tfgdb.com. I followed the correct procedure ie. 301 redirects, sitemap submitted and informed google of the move.
Its been 2 weeks and my traffic from google is at 1/3 of the original site.
What would be my best way to continue? Carry on and hope the traffic rebuilds to original levels or try and change back to thefreegamesdb.com(would that even recover my old search rankings?)
Thanks for the advice

 

[descalzo]

free games db in Google brings your site up 3rd. free games database puts you 1st

1. The page title is "Linux" on their listing and in you source is TFGdb.com -- now exactly what does your title tell the casual searcher? Nothing! Make the title of your pages describe what they contain.

2. Why did you switch URLs? To me, descriptive URLs are better. ( I might have just dropped the "the" -- but I see it is taken, but the site rather stale ) unless you are something like NYT.com where everbody can figure it out.

 

[gameaddict2085]

1. Yeah most pages have descriptions but I missed out a decent one for the homepage.
2. I thought smaller URL was better but I see that my old one was actually better :/

What would you recommend I do now?

I think my best plan would be to:
1. remove the 403 redirects from thefreegamesdb.com
2. mirror the content to both thefreegamesdb.com and tfgdb.com
3. set all links within my site to point to thefreegamesdb.com
4. remove the domain move notice from google
5. Pray my search results return to normal

 

[garrettroyce]

1. Yeah most pages have descriptions but I missed out a decent one for the homepage.
2. I thought smaller URL was better but I see that my old one was actually better :/

What would you recommend I do now?

I think my best plan would be to:
1. remove the 403 redirects from thefreegamesdb.com
2. mirror the content to both thefreegamesdb.com and tfgdb.com
3. set all links within my site to point to thefreegamesdb.com
4. remove the domain move notice from google
5. Pray my search results return to normal

1. Absolutely! This should be a 301 permanent redirect. This will make it known to search engines and users your site moved.
2. Absolutely NOT. Search engines penalize sites with duplicate content. Your new site will suffer a penalty for copying your old site.
3. Not relevant with 301 redirects.
4. Keep the domain move notice.
5. Not relevant with 301 redirects.

You should put a 301 redirect immediately for your old site that will redirect to your new site. This should help minimize your losses.

 

[gameaddict2085]

Sorry I ment 301 redirects. Thefreegamesdb.com currently has 301 to tfgdb.com. ive submitted sitemaps to google for both sites and already sent a change of address notice to google. My problem is that ive had a massive search engine traffic drop and dislike the new domain tfgdb.com and would like to go back to thefreegamesdb.com and try to recover search rankings.

 

[garrettroyce]

In that case, I'd reverse what you've done. Submit the change of address to Google, 301 the new site to the old site, etc.

Right now you're somewhere halfway in between the two sites; you should make it clear to your users and the search engines which site is going to be the "real" site.