At the 2006 Las Vegas Webmaster World I stood up and asked Matt Cutts from Google a question that actually got applause from he crowd.<\/p>\n
I asked “Why do we have to lose rankings for so long if we change domain names, and might the Google Webmaster Tools team be working on a way to minimize our pain?”.<\/p>\n
Even if everything is done the “right” way, with 301 redirects etc. there is always a significant traffic and rankings drop, and it’s very frustrating.<\/p>\n
I have several clients , (including myself) that want to use a different domain name for their business, but are afraid to lose current search engine visibility.<\/p>\n
Look at the URL in your address bar here on my blog, and you’ll see it says pdxtc.com. I’d much rather use Searchcommander.com, but I likely can’t do that without dropping off page one SERPS for a lot of phrases.\u00a0 Therefore, I’ve been reluctant to change it for nearly two years now, and that’s ridiculous.<\/p>\n
When Rand Fishkin offered on his blog to ask Vanessa Fox some questions that readers submitted, I asked the question again there, and Rand got to it in near the end of the interview from last weeks SES New York.<\/p>\n
Happily for webmasters all over the world, she responded favorably, and even mentioned something similar to the www vs. non-www option that’s in Webmaster tools now,\u00a0 as a possible solution.<\/p>\n
The business community of the world should be able to change their web address like they change their street address – as needed – and they shouldn’t suffer a loss of revenue as a result.<\/p>\n
Rand even held his hands together and begged for Google’s cooperation, but I might have gotten on my knees too!<\/p>\n
This video has great tips about moving a domain the “right” way, as well as valuable other insight that you need to hear if you’re an “SEO”. Thanks Rand, thanks Vanessa, and thanks Google.<\/p>\n
For a list of all the questions asked, check out Rand’s blog<\/a><\/p>\n